


No Man's Land

by PorcelainStorm



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Siblings, Eventual Romance, F/M, OFC Sibling, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2019-09-22 08:40:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 31,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17056511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PorcelainStorm/pseuds/PorcelainStorm
Summary: The Barton siblings had grown up knowing a single truth:“Trust no one”.  Their childhoods had been ripped away, leading the trio eventually to find comfort and a home in a traveling circus.Time is a tricky thing, but some things never change: a friend turned foe, the Swordsman, is out for revenge after the three siblings had locked him away ten years previously, after a robbery went haywire.With Natasha missing, and his sister, Amelia Barton, retired from intelligence work; Clint attempts to reunite his siblings for one last showdown with the former villain.Little do they realize, this grudge goes deeper than a foiled robbery; and Jacques Duquesne has new, powerful, allies to exact his revenge on the Barton trio.





	1. Chaos

* * *

 

 

* * *

 

Everything had gone to shit so quickly.  

Natasha had assured, both Bucky and Clint, that she knew what she was doing.  She promised she could handle a few whacked out carnies.  

It took approximately _twenty-two minutes_  before alarms began to blare, and a man the size of a mountain smashed through Bucky and Clint’s cover, knocking them both into a nearby tree trunk.  

The two spies had their asses handed to them, and lost all tracking information on Natasha.  

It’d been three days of bickering, yelling, and stress, trying to track down their friend and teammate.  

Neither man had slept after following broken leads, and dead ends.  

“We’ll keep searching,” Steve dropped down on the couch in the makeshift war room the two men had created in the living room of the compound.  “You two need to get some rest.  It’ll clear your heads.”

Clint snorted, passing the brunette super-soldier a piece of paper with a shrug.  

“We’ve  _tried_ ,” he commented lightly, waiting for Bucky’s response after a brief glance over the file.  

“Try again,” Steve’s voice lowered, his “ _Captain_ ” persona slipping through.  

“Steve, this is our fault,” Bucky lowered the paper and stared directly at his old friend.  With a furrowed brow, he scowled.  “ _We_  dropped the ball.  We didn’t see the trap.”

“ _I_  didn’t see the trap,” Steve voiced sharply.  “I was in charge of mission prep and I missed the red flags.  This is on  _me_ , but if you two are so hell bent on a rescue  _mission;_  I  _order_  you to take care of yourselves.  Tony and I have a tracking program searching the planet.  If she pops up, we’ll find her.”

It was typical of Rogers to worry about others while ignoring self-care for himself.  Both Clint and Bucky could see the clear dark circles under the soldier’s eyes, and the occasional dazed look of exhaustion when Tony or Sam updated him on something.  

“We’re fine,” Clint assured him nonchalantly.  “If we drop, we drop.”

Bucky nodded in agreement, not once removing his focus from the tablet in front of him as he scrolled through an older mission report from Clint’s early days with SHIELD.  

“Who’s ‘ _Sparrow_ ’?” the brunette questioned, passing Clint the device.  

The archer’s heart rate shot up at the familiar name.  He’d done everything in his power not to involve  _that_  particular person in all of this, but of course Bucky Barnes would eventually come across that rough patch of history.  The former assassin was, if nothing, diligent in his research.  

“SHIELD Intelligence,” Clint replied cryptically, skimming over the details.  

“They did a lot of work investigating Jacques a few years back,” Bucky added, tapping the screen in the corner and pulling up an even older report.  “Do you know their civilian identity?”

Clint sighed, lowering the device and looking between Steve and Bucky.  The former was now leaning forward in his seat, staring expectantly at him.  

“They left this life a while ago,” Clint explained softly.  “I made a promise to leave them  _alone_.  The last thing they’d want is to be pulled back in because of  _Jacques_.”

“Clint, this Sparrow person might be the only lead we have in tracking down Nat,” Bucky insisted sharply.  “As crappy as it is, this is all we have.”

Clint groaned, leaning back into the couch with his hand on his face, running through  _any_  other option they had.  

The assassin was right; they were  _fucked_ , and despite his promise, they were getting desperate.  

“Fine,” he shot back with sigh.  He stood up, throwing his bundle of paperwork to the table and glancing at the men.  “I’m leaving with the Quinjet in twenty minutes.  If you wanna come, be there on time.”

“Can’t you just make a phone call?” Steve quirked a brow at his friend.  

“She doesn’t have a phone,” he grumbled with another scowl.  “Twenty minutes boys.  And pack some shorts.”

* * *

It took a little over an hour before the jet broke through the could cover revealing the familiar outline of the Hawaiian Islands.  Crystal clear water wrapped around the islands that came into better view as Clint directed the jet toward the big island.  

“Welcome to Hawai’i,” he called to Bucky and Steve who’s faces were practically pressed against the windows of the Quinjet.  It was a gorgeous site, Clint had to admit, despite his general distaste for their visit.  He knew she would be pissed to see him, and he didn’t blame her.  It wasn’t like their previous visit had gone the best.

He’d be lucky to get out of this will all of his limbs attached to his body.  

It was a beautiful, sunny day on the Big Island, a rarity for the region where Sparrow could be found.  It didn’t take very long for Clint to find a clearing to land the jet.  When he opened the hatch, the smell of dampened flora and the nearby ocean hit him straight in the nostalgia.  

It’d been a little over five years since he’d last stood on this island, and the memories associated with it seemed as fresh as if they’d happened yesterday.  

He glanced over his shoulder to Bucky and Steve, both clad in civilian clothes and gazing around the natural beauty in awe.  

“Let’s  _go_ ,” Clint nodded toward a discreet path in the nearby forest.  “Hopefully, there aren’t too make traps.“

* * *

It’d been a good day for Amelia Barton.  

She’d gotten her truck to start and finally went to town for some supplies to build her new greenhouse.  She’d caught enough fish to supply Kai and her fiancé for their wedding feast, and managed to repair the screen she’d ignored for a weeks now.  

It was gorgeous out and she was in an incredible mood.  

That was until she arrived back home with an armful of groceries and saw that the latch on her front door was open.  

She set her goods aside and pulled a dagger from her hip, stepping carefully through some overgrowth toward her porch.  

Leaning near the doorway, she heard voices, low and tense.  

Amelia still had the element of surprise, so ducking low, she slipped inside soundlessly, wrapping herself around corners and in the shadows of her hall.  

_“…might be pissed I’m here.”_

Oh, she knew  _that_  voice.

With a hiss, she rounded the corner, loosing her dagger through the air, grinning when a surprised voice yelped in response.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded, her hands on her hips.  She stared down at the trio of men assembled around her kitchen table, her brother gaping at the knife sticking out of the wall, centimeters from his chin.  

“You could have killed me!” he exclaimed.  

“I  _didn’t_ ,” she murmured coolly, pulling the knife out of the wood panelling and gazing around, settling back on Clint with a glare.  “I thought I was pretty clear about you visiting.”

The blonde next to Clint practically jumped up, offering a hand for her to shake and an apologetic cringe.  

“I’m so  _sorry_  miss, but we wouldn’t be here unless it was absolutely necessary,” he explained, taking Amelia’s hand and giving it a curt shake.  “I’m Steve Rogers, this my friend Bucky Barnes.”

Her attention flickered over to the brunette currently eating out of one of her plastic containers of pineapple with an eye roll.

“ _Wonderful_ , so nice to meet you.” she replied with a fake smile.  “Now please get out.  Clint, I was serious about taking a finger the next time you stepped foot here.  I was having such a great day and-”

“Nat’s  _missing_ ,” Clint voiced quietly, his grey gaze unwavering from the former-SHIELD agent in front of him.  

“What?” all traces of anger faded after Clint dropped the bombshell.  “Nat doesn’t  _go_   _missing_.”

“It’s true,” Bucky added through a forkful of fruit.  “She’s been gone for almost four days.”  

Amelia dropped to an open chair at the table, looking down at the faded plastic table cloth in disbelief.  

“You checked-?” she began and Clint nodded.  “What about  _Belgium_?”

“Everything,” he confirmed before looking to Steve expectantly.  The blonde man set a tablet on the table in front of Amelia and opened a file.  

“She was on a mission investigating a  _Jacques Duquesne_ ,” he explained firmly.  “We’d been following his escape from prison for a few months now, and we were waiting for him to show his face.  When we finally got a lead, our team went in to recapture him, but it ended up being a trap.”

“Of course it was a  _trap_ ,” Amelia mumbled, her finger dragging across the screen.  She read the important details quickly, memorizing layouts and key people.  “How did  _he_  escape?”

Clint shrugged with a scowl.  

“We have no idea.  The guards had been doing their checks and when they got to his cell, it was empty.  There’s no camera footage or anything.  It’s as if he  _vanished_  in thin air.”

Amelia mumbled a curse under her breathe, finishing the file and looking to the men.  

“I don’t know how I can help,” she confessed.  “I haven’t been in contact with SHIELD for years and I don’t know enough about Jacques  _now_  to be of any help.”

“Yeah, but you resurfacing in civilization might pull him out,” another male voice commented from behind Amelia.  

The group of former spies and assassins reacted instantly.  Clint and Bucky pulled out guns, Steve kicked his shield up over himself and Amelia, while she grabbed a pistol from under the table.

“You should  _all_  take a Xanax or something,” the voice laughed, stepping into the kitchen and eliciting identical groans from both Clint and Amelia.  

“Let’s just make it a big  _reunion_ , why not?” Amelia dropped her head backwards with a long sigh.  “ _Charles_ , what did I tell you about showing up unannounced?”  

“Something about slicing my left testicle off,” he recited with a smirk.  

Clint’s attention perked with the comment.

“Mia, you have a serious problem with cutting off people’s extremities,” he chuckled, standing to greet the new comer with a hug.  “ _Barney_ , it’s been too long.”

The two men beamed at each other with identical expressions before turning to Amelia with waiting arms.  

She hesitated, annoyed that her ice cream was probably melting outside, before grumbling under her breath and pulling Barney into a big hug.  

“Is anyone going to explain what the hell is going on?” Bucky demanded, lowering his weapon with a confused exchange of glances with Steve.  

“ _Guys_ ,” Clint took the lead, with a grin toward the Barney and Amelia.  “I want you to meet my older brother, Barney Barton and my baby sister, Mia.”

The super soldiers gaped at the trio.

“Close your mouths before geckos crawl in, and it’s  _Amelia_ ,” Amelia mumbled, pulling away from the arm Barney had slung over her shoulder.  “Barney, is it safe to guess you’re here about Duquesne?”

“That would be correct my little  _manu_ ,” he chuckled.  “Did you honestly think I’d stand by and let  _Clint_  deal with all of this alone?  The FBI has been tracking Jacques for months until the  _Avengers_ screwed up our sting.”

“Then you two have  _fun_ ,” Amelia threw on an over exaggerated smile.  “ _Barnes,_  stop eating my food, that was gift from my neighbor.  It’s been  _wonderful_  seeing you all,  _mahalo_  and  _aloha_.  See you in another five years.”

“Mia, you could help us save Nat,” Clint took her shoulders, staring at her earnestly.

“I’m not going to be  _bait_ ,” she shrugged him off, grabbing the container of pineapple away from Bucky before he could grab another forkful.  “I’m not a spy anymore.  I stubbed my toe this morning and cried for an hour.  I don’t do this anymore.”

“ _Buck Chisholm_  was one of the last people seen with Nat,” Barney supplied quietly.  Amelia wasn’t sure if their guests had heard the comment, but the name was enough for her entire demeanor to shift.  Her spine instantly straightened and something had clicked inside of her.

_“When do we start?”_

* * *

When the group returned to the jet, Barney and Amelia jumped into action, reviewing everything Bucky and Clint had gathered thus far about the mission.  

Admittedly, Bucky was pretty impressed with how quickly the pair caught onto the specifics, and how capable they were at supplying their own intel.  It made him wonder why the arrowing shooting Avenger had been so tight lipped about the duo.

“This  _screams_  carnie revenge,” Amelia announced, passing Bucky the file she’d been reading, leaning forward in her seat on the Quinjet.  “Jacques was mad at us for having him arrested, he gets some people who also have us at the top of their shit list, and boom, Nat gets kidnapped.”

“What’s Natasha have to do with any of this?” Steve questioned with an arched brow at the ash blonde woman.  She pulled a face, suppressing a laugh, looking at Steve in surprise.

Everyone fell silent, including Bucky, who was certain that his friend wasn’t that obtuse.

“You  _seriously_  don’t see the doe eyes Clint gives her?  It’s like she’s his  _whole_   _universe_ ,” Amelia explained with a dramatic swoon, while Barney nodded curtly in agreement.  Bucky snorted and patted Steve on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry, it took Sam a while to figure out too,” he consoled softly, earning a punch in the shoulder from the super soldier.  

“Sam knew?” Steve murmured, glancing over his back at the oblivious archer in the pilot’s seat.  

“The point being, they wanna hit Clint  _low_  and pull him  _out_ ,” Amelia explained, pulling out Buck Chisholm’s record, shaking it in the air.  “ _Trickshot_ , aka Buck Chisholm, was mentored by Barney and Clint, until he kind of betrayed both of them and got pissed when Clint took  _Barney’s_  side instead of  _his_.”

Barney coughed and Amelia shot him a glare, before she grabbed another handful of folders.

“When  _I’m_  interested in is what Tiboldt is up to these days,” she looked toward the front of the jet and called to Clint.  “You checked on  _Ringmaster_ , right?”

“ _No_ , because I’m huge fucking  _idiot_ ,” Clint called back with a scoff.  “Of  _course_  I checked on him.  It’s the  _grey_  folder.”

Amelia ignored the comment, digging through the pile until she came across a grey folder with the familiar name written in sharpie across the front.  

“He’s in New York?  Who on earth gave  _him_  parole?” Amelia muttered, holding the file up to Barney.  “ _Big brother Barney_ , it’d be just peachy if you can find that out for me-”

Bucky had already run the information as she spoke, pulling up the new name and skimming the page.  

“It was some heiress named Ophelia Sarkissian,” Bucky supplied, passing Amelia his tablet as FRIDAY supplied the necessary information to the device.  “She convinced the parole panel that he was reformed and helped fund his life post-release.  Apparently she’s  _big_  into charity work with former felons.

“Oh Bucky, you’re my new favorite.  I bet that means they keep in touch,” Amelia guessed with a grin.  She called back up to Clint again, this time pausing thoughtfully as she gazed down at Ophelia’s photograph.

“Hey  _jerk_ , call Tony, I need a favor-,” she ordered, her finger pausing over a recent invitation to a charity gala in Manhattan that evening.  “ _And_  an overpriced party dress.  I think I have an idea on how we can get Nat back.”

 


	2. Brevity

* * *

“You should get some sleep,” Clint’s voice broke the daze Amelia had fallen into while staring at all of the files for the mission. 

The younger Barton leaned back, giving a long stretch and sighed. 

“You’re one to talk,” she mumbled, closing her folder and tossing it to the top of a large pile nearby.“You look like trash.”

Clint snorted, dropping to the empty seat next to his sister, leaning his head back against the cool metal siding of the jet. 

“I guess it’s easier said than done,” he confessed quietly.Around the jet, the others had mostly crashed, including Barnes, which shocked Clint, as he’d been more fidgety than Clint was about the whole Nat situation. 

Clint himself had turned the jet to auto pilot to try and get some shut eye, but his mind kept playing over scenarios of what might be happening to Natasha, and he couldn’t let his body relax.Not yet.

“I know you’re scared, but this is what I do, or well, _did_ ,” she offered him a small, reassuring smile.“We’ll find her.I promise.It’s my job.”

Clint nodded to himself, his head still faced upward.He had to remember that Mia had a stake in this as well.The former agent probably had more undercover missions with the redhead than he’d had in his whole career.Mia knew what to look for.He swore that the women had some kind of psychic connection when it came to finding one another.On more than one occasion one had tracked the other across borders without a single hint or clue. 

“Yeah,” he finally grunted, readjusting his posture to get a better look at his baby sister.“Barney mentioned Chisholm.You gonna be ok?”

It was slight, but he saw Amelia tense at the familiar name.She closed her eyes a moment, the exhaustion that settled on her shoulders more evident now than it had been all day. 

“I’ve gotta be, right?” she noted dryly.“Natasha is more important than some screwed up…”

Her voice trailed off as the siblings caught Barnes stirring in the cot across from them.They silently watched as he slowly awoke, gazing around the silent jet in confusion. 

“What time is it?” he grumbled through a yawn.

Amelia looked expectantly at her brother, and Clint groaned, standing up and glancing at the controls up front. 

“About 4 am in New York,” the archer replied.“We’ve got a little over 12 hours before we infiltrate the charity gala.”

“How far until we hit the city?” the former assassin questioned with a stretch, his gaze met Mia’s and he offered a small smile, earning a snort from the youngest Barton sibling. 

“About two hours,” Clint offered.“May as well get some more sleep, Barnes.”

“Too late, I’m already awake,” Barnes yawned again and gestured toward the onboard coffee machine.“Anyone else need some?”

“Be careful, Amelia will down the whole pot if you let her,” Clint teased, flipping the small machine to life and dropping to a seat between Mia and Bucky. 

“My kinda woman,” Bucky shot a wink in Mia’s direction, but instead of finding a shy smirk, he was met with a glare from Clint. 

“I can’t believe you’re hitting on my sister in front of me,” Clint complained, grumbling as he scooped coffee grounds into a filter.“I can’t believe you’ve got me making the coffee.”

“Don’t worry _Clinton_ ,” Mia stood up and took the task over for her brother.“I’ve taken a vow of celibacy from _Bucky’s_.”

“You said that in high school,” Barney’s sleepy voice carried through the cabin.“Remind me what happened five years ago?”

“Go back to bed, Barney,” Mia threw a crumpled coffee filter at her oldest brother and finished starting the coffee.“Nobody asked you.”

Bucky watched the exchange between the Barton siblings in amusement.Even though they’d only been reunited a few hours before, the familial chemistry was still there.Clint and Barney would pick on Mia, but fake hurt if she fired back. 

“…Which one of us is only working for the FBI because he’s a career criminal?” Amelia threw her hands on her hips and glared at Barney.“That’s what I thought.”

“At least I didn’t _fuck_ one,” Barney muttered, earning a slew of curses under Amelia’s breath as she poured herself and Bucky mugs of coffee.

The Barton boys had picked up on another argument while Amelia settled into a seat by a window, staring at the patches of lights from the flyover cities as the jet soared through the night. 

“You’re welcome to use my cot if you’d like to try and get a little shut eye,” Bucky cleared his throat, stirring Amelia from her concentration.She smiled, sipping at her beverage and shrugging. 

“I’m fine,” she admitted quietly.“I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway, now that Nat’s been pulled into all of this nonsense.She has her own dysfunction, she doesn’t deserve to be dragged into ours.”

“Carnies, huh?” Bucky questioned in amusement.“My ma always warned us about circus folk, but go figure they’re all _actually_ criminals.”

Mia laughed, the sound a surprising reprise from the sullen expression and snark that she seemed to wear like armor.

“You do what you gotta do,” she explained.“Clint and Barney didn’t become good shots because our parents paid for summer camp, but Clint’s saved the world a few times.It all evens out.”

“What about you?” Bucky’s voice stayed low.He was actually enjoying the more intimate conversation he was sharing with Amelia, much to his shock.And if he was being honest, Amelia looked less like she was going to vomit from nerves.

“I’m nobody,” she hummed, downing the remainder of her drink in a swallow.“Refill?”

“Clint wasn’t kidding,” he glanced at his barely touched mug as she poured more black liquid into her cup. 

“It’s easier than counting sheep,” Amelia chuckled, her gaze caught by the steam rising from the coffee. 

There was a melancholy that Bucky recognized in Amelia.He wore it, Clint wore it, and even Natasha and Steve wore it from time to time.It was a shroud of maybe, a dark past?Perhaps, like the rest of them, she’d been forced to grow up faster than she should have.It was a universal energy, that no matter what one did, a person couldn’t just outgrow it. 

* * *

 


	3. Ophelia

* * *

“ _And this was the best you could do for me?_ ” Amelia complained into the comm link to Tony.The ballroom of the _Le Chat Blanc_ hotel was buzzing with a large crowd well dressed of heiress’, politicians, and celebrities. 

The walls were draped with 19th century circus advertisements and large swaths of crimson fabric.Between the debutantes and millionaires, costumed servers weaved through the crowds with large trays of champagne and themed pastries. 

At the edges of the room, acrobats and trapeze artists moved in sync with the music that pulsed through the room.That was where Amelia Barton had been stationed for the mission. 

With her hair stuffed in a long ginger wig and sporting a slightly too tight bodysuit, she gracefully flipped around the outer rim of a trapeze hoop. 

“We need eyes upstairs,” Tony replied through a tight smile at a nearby politician. 

“And you couldn’t, ya know, put _Hawkeye_ in the rafters or something?” she huffed, falling into a slow flip and catching herself on the next performer’s hoop. 

“You look better in the unitard than he does,” Tony chimed back with a chuckle.

“You’d be surprised,” Amelia gave a final sigh before resigning to her fate and gripping onto a pair of nearby dangling silks.“For the record, I haven’t seen anyone I recognize.” 

“Ophelia still hasn’t arrived,” Sam added from the main entrance to the ballroom.“Is Pepper making an appearance?”

“She should be swinging by soon-,” Tony chatted casually, causing Amelia to zone out of the chatter on the comm.

It’d been quite some time she had found herself towering above the world.She’d forgotten how peaceful it was to watch crowds from afar.

Her _character_ for the evening was a French acrobat who had been called in by the performance agency to cover for another performer when she called in sick with food poisoning.The other actors and performers didn’t seemed bothered in the least by her presence, and the performance continued without a disturbance. 

Occasionally the servers and performers would switch roles, with acrobats serving drinks and the previous servers doing flips and contortionist routines off of any available surface in the room. 

It was a little much, in Amelia’s opinion, but she knew than most, that rich people were willing to pay any price for whatever amusing curiosities that crossed their paths.

It was a little later in the night when Amelia was relieved from a pair of silks to serving duty.The guy she’d took the serving tray from complained colorfully in french about a handset senator, shooting a half-hearted warning to Amelia as he rapidly ascended to the top of the room.

With the other members of the team targeting specific members of Duquesne’s gang and trailing when they could. 

Amelia and Bucky had been assigned to Ophelia, with Barney keeping watch at a distance while they would interact directly.Fortunately, the heiress had finally decided to make an appearance at the charity event, drawing a large crowd that immediately caught Amelia’s attention.

At first, Amelia surveyed from afar.She couldn’t get a decent look at the woman as cameras flashing and paparazzi shouted questioned, but as the night moved forward, less and less people swarmed her. 

Amelia approached Ophelia from a careful distance, watching the raven-haired heiress like a predator stalking its prey.She measured each subtle movement, each hair flip, each nervous tic that would mean nothing to the casual observer. 

Ophelia moved like a snake.Her gestures were smooth, her words just soothing enough to draw her audience in before she broke the spell with a melodious bout of laughter. 

“I’m moving in,” Amelia muttered to the team, snagging a serving tray full of drinks from a passing waiter, closing in on the socialite, and her small group of admirers.Amelia still hadn’t gotten a good look at the woman’s face, and while she twisted her body through the waves of people, Amelia felt the breath in her lungs disappear when she locked eyes with Ophelia Sarkissian.  

“Drink?” she found herself asking, her body desperately demanding that she get as close as possible to this woman.For the mission, she reminded herself firmly.The mission. 

Ophelia’s gaze never faltered from Amelia’s.She reached a delicate hand for one of the long stemmed champagne glasses and offered the performer a sly smile through her sip. 

“What’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?” the heiress questioned teasingly, immediately dismissing her entourage with the shift in her attention. 

Amelia paused, chewing her bottom lip like a school girl with her first crush.She noted Ophelia’s gaze slip to the spy’s lips, a subtle, but _important_ signal that Amelia caught onto immediately. 

“You do what you have to do,” Amelia replied cryptically, her faux-french accent playing off the tip of her tongue.She leaned in closer to Ophelia, lowering her voice so that only the heiress could hear her playful words.“Not all of us were born into fortunes, _Mademoiselle_.”

Ophelia hummed, grinning through dark emerald lipstick at her.

“I could help you with that,” she murmured, running the tips of her fingers over the sequined side of Amelia’s costume. 

“ _Perhaps_ ,” Amelia’s attention snapped to a nearby guest calling for her tray of drinks. 

She could feel Ophelia’s gaze penetrate her as Amelia continued serving all of the fabulously rich and famous throughout the room.It was a violating gaze that sent chills up and down her spine, but secretly, Amelia loved how smothering it was. 

When she realized she’d run out of drinks and needed to refill her tray, Amelia sent a single glance in Ophelia’s direction.Nothing felt as good as the surge of endorphins that hit her when Sarkissian returned the gesture.

Amelia then slipped behind one of the large catering barricades, draped with crimson curtains, and finally felt able to catch a full breath of air.It was like the spell in the ballroom had broken and Amelia felt a rush of nerves hit her like a freight train.

Suddenly her brain was yelling at her about keeping her focus.That Buck Chisholm could appear at any moment and ruin all of this.She knew logically that she could take the guy in a fight, she couldn’t remember how many times she’d whipped his butt over the years.Yet, there was that disarming aura he held about himself that ruined Amelia more than whatever it was that Ophelia was doing to her. 

Amelia felt a hand on her elbow and immediately jumped, dropping her plastic serving tray, and gripping the source of the touch into a tight arm bar.She was ready to snap the mystery person’s forearm in half when they spoke up. 

“ _Relax_ , it’s me,” Bucky’s voice replied.Amelia released her grip, picking up her tray and sighing. 

“Sorry,” she murmured.“I’m half expecting a carnie to stab me with a butter knife.”

“That’s good, keep alert,” Bucky warned.“Don’t let your guard down for an instant.I know it’s been a while since you’ve been in the field…”

Amelia snorted, summing all of the gusto she had remaining and pressing the tray into Bucky’s chest.She turned toward the entrance to the ballroom on her heel and smirked. 

“This ain’t my first rodeo, Barnes,” she hummed, adjusting the tights on her costume, disappearing through the bright red curtains and back into the fray.

Bucky tossed aside the tray.He caught his reflection in a nearby mirror and readjusted his tie.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Amelia to follow through on her mission, he just had seen the way Ophelia had affected the semi-retired spy. 

The woman had some sort of chemistry about her, Bucky had felt it once or twice while surveying the heiress, but it seemed like Amelia had been caught right in the trap. 

While it was beneficial for the mission for things to get intimate between the two women, he just hoped that Amelia could keep her head straight long enough to pry some information from Ophelia. 

He had been, after all, tasked by Clint to keep an eye on the youngest Barton during the night.

When he was satisfied with his adjustment, he returned to the floor, throwing half-hearted smiles at passing cameras and posing with Steve and Sam for press photos. 

The remainder of the evening, he kept Amelia in the corner of his eye, watching her play with Ophelia continue to progress until the dark-haired woman pressed a small note into the server’s hand and disappeared from the venue with her waiting security detail.

_“She wants me to meet her in her hotel room in an hour,”_ Amelia’s voice reported to the group.Bucky saw her nearby stumble into a passing Senator and immediately decided to intervene. 

Something wasn’t right.

Bucky crossed the room, pulling Amelia aside, her stupor unchanging while he scanned the room for a more secluded place to chat.He tracked down the coat room, closing the woman into the tight space and lifting her chin to look into her eyes. 

She kept staring down at the piece of paper in her hand, a scrap taken from a receipt roll at the bar with the words: **_Hilton Penthouse, midnight -OS_** scribbled elegantly across the surface in green pen.

“ _Mia_ ,” Bucky called the woman’s name and her gaze jerked up, her grey eyes dilated and her eye line unfocused.“Hey, you with me?”

Amelia closed her eyes, letting out a long, shaky breath, before nodding at her teammate. 

“Yep, all here,” she replied, clearing her throat.Gone was the confidence from earlier, her body language slower, and more hesitant. 

“You’re not meeting her, _not alone_ ,” Bucky decided after taking in Amelia’s appearance.  

“I _am_ -,” she shot back in protest, closing her eyes a moment to gather herself.They opened more focused and passionate.“She’s… _persuasive_ , but I won’t stay in there for long.”

“What are you gonna do?Drug her?Maybe get some _truth serum_?” Bucky guessed with a mocking scoff, the nerves in his stomach still dancing. 

When she didn’t answer, his brows shot up in surprise.“Seriously?That’s a terrible idea, especially considering what _she’s already done to you_.” 

“Clint gave me some potent stuff that Nat used to use back in the day,” she snapped with an eye roll.She held a bright blue liquid up from Bucky to examine more closely.“It’s fast acting and I only need a few minutes with a phone or laptop.She won’t remember a thing.”

Clearly this woman had lost her mind, or so Bucky had decided.She was more reckless than Steve and Clint combined. 

“You’re going to get yourself killed.” 

“James, I appreciate your concern, but what happens to me doesn’t matter,” she replied tersely.“At the very least, I can find Tiboldt or Chisholm, which leads us back to Nat.That’s the mission.”

“Unless all of this is a trap and you’re dead in a few hours,” he growled, growing impatient with her.He’d be an idiot to let her go alone, not when Ophelia’s danger hadn’t been fully clocked.“And then we have to retrieve your body and blow everyone’s cover.”

“Then tell Nat how I died, she’ll be so proud,” Amelia’s hand was already on the door handle and she slipped out before Bucky could get in another word. 

“ _You guys are okay with her being_ ** _alone_** _with Sarkissian?_ ” he barked through the comm. 

“ _I don’t think you understand how good my sister is at getting information,_ ” Barney chimed up with a laugh.“ _There’s a reason people say a ‘little bird’ told them…_ ”

_“I hate to kiss and tell but, uh, she and Nat definitely took advantage of my vulnerable state a few years ago,”_ Tony snickered in response. 

_“_ ** _Things I’m not interested in hearing_** _,”_ Clint complained.

“ _Don’t have a heart attack, he was unconscious before either of us took our shoes off,_ ” Amelia supplied.Bucky could almost hear the irritating smirk forming behind her words.

_Bad idea.Bad idea._

The words echoed through Bucky’s brain over and over.After debating for a few seconds, after she disappeared from sight, he decided to follow her. 

_Just in case._ He reasoned.It was better to be safe than sorry, after all.   


* * *

 


	4. Morning

* * *

“I’m normally not one to say ‘I told you so’, but it’s so easy this time,” Bucky’s voice stirred Amelia from a dreamless sleep. 

The blonde’s eyes crept open, the surrounding light of the room briefly blinding her.She let out a low groan and buried her face back into a pile of pillows.

“She knew exactly who you were,” he threw he red wig on her back.“And then proceeded to get you to your underwear and sedate the shit out of you.”

Amelia already knew this, and she was pretty sure Bucky knew she knew, but obviously wanted to rub her rookie mistake in her face.

“She ditched you, left a sweet note, and luckily, I was able to smuggle you to the room I rented down the hall.”

Amelia rolled over, finally taking in the scene around her.Bucky was propped up in a chair across from the large bed she was in, skimming through the morning newspaper.She lifted her blanket and let out a breath of relief, noting that she was wrapped in a hotel bathrobe.

“Cute bra though, right?” she tried joking, earning a dissatisfied snort from the assassin. 

“Did it occur to you that you were incredibly close to getting killed?” he folded the newspaper and set it aside.“Like, I’m not sure you’re really recognizing how lucky you got.”

“Luck is a Barton family secret,” she smiled brightly, throwing back the covers and beginning to crawl out of the bed.“Honestly, it’s a miracle any of us are alive.”

“You dying would have seriously set back the mission,” he looked unfazed at Amelia’s attempt to lighten the mood.He kept his judgmental gaze locked on Amelia’s back as she strolled across the room and began to turn on the coffee maker. 

“I have the worst headache, any idea of what she got me with?I thought I’d been hit with it all,” she rambled, rubbing a circle on her temple. 

“Are you even listening to me?” Bucky demanded, standing up in frustration.“If you think you’re going back into the field again after this stunt…”

Amelia reached into her bra and pulled out a small USB drive, holding it in front of Bucky with a small grin.

“…What’s this?” he asked, grabbing it out of her hand and moving toward his bags in the back of the room. 

“I mean, I definitely dropped the ball-,” she conceded softly, inhaling a deep breath of the coffee that was beginning to pour.“But an agency like SHIELD doesn’t get their intelligence from just anyone.”

Bucky plugged the device into the side of his computer while Amelia poured her beverage and crossed the room, leaning on the chair behind his shoulder.

“You copied her hard-drive,” he realized, clicking on a few random files that appeared on screen.

“It’s crazy the things you overhear at a party,” Amelia mused softly, leaning in closer to peer at the screen.“ _You know?_ Things like ‘hey Amelia, I think it’s a trap.’.It’s super bizarre when you actually start stumbling around even though you aren’t drinking.Almost like I knew it was a setup from the get-go.”

“You don’t have to be a jerk about it,” he looked up at her with a shrug.“I wasn’t about to deal with Clint’s wrath having lost his sister to a potential terrorist.”

“You played your part perfectly,” she patted his shoulder and walked to the bed, dropping down with a long yawn. 

“Nat’s really rubbed off on you,” Bucky folded his laptop.“I shoulda known.”

“You really should’ve,” she smiled over the rim of her mug.“I’ve killed people, believe it or not.”

“I believe it now,” he confessed, standing to grab his own mug of coffee. 

“The robe was a nice touch,” Amelia added.“ _Very chivalrous_.” 

“The last thing we needed was that bra catching some poor bellboy’s attention,” he deadpanned.

* * *

 


	5. Soldier

 

* * *

“Now they know we’re all here,” Clint flipped through Amelia’s briefing.“But we’re a step ahead of them.”

“And we know where Nat is,” Amelia added firmly.“I say we go tonight.Sweep in, grab her, and assess any damage done.”

“This Tiboldt, can he really hypnotize _anyone_ with his eyes?” Sam questioned with raised brows.

“It’s special implants,” Barney clarified.“They’re in his pupils and he can entrap an entire audience.”

“Why would anyone want to do that?Boost ticket sales?” Steve asked the trio. 

“Makes it easier to rob them,” Amelia supplied while scribbling down a few notes on her packet.“Especially when you’ve recruited a team of super talented orphans.”

“I vote we take tonight for reconnaissance,” Tony suggested, reviewing the blue prints of one of Ophelia’s many newly constructed properties.“I can send a few drones, get pictures and see if there’s any security we’re not considering.”

“Worse case scenario they brainwashed Natasha into fighting on their side,” Clint reasoned.“And honestly, I think between all of us, we might be able to take her down.”

“ _Maybe_ ,” Amelia and Bucky voiced in unison. 

“I’m with Tony, we should know what we’re getting into,” Steve nodded toward the billionaire.“We have the advantage and we’ll be able to take Ophelia by surprise if she thinks she’s gotten under our skin.Let’s give her a day to simmer while we go in as prepared as possible.”

“I’m in,” Barney tossed his packet down and raised his hand.

“Literally nobody asked you,” Amelia shot back with an eye roll.“Why are you even still here?”

“My handler thinks my talents are best served with you lovely folks.Why are you still here, Miss Exile?” 

“ _Because I think Steve’s cut_ e,” she mocked.“Because I’m trying to get my friend back, you idiot.”

“We can use all of the help we can get,” Steve interjected lightly.“Tony and I will draw up mission specifics tonight.Get some rest.”

Barney shot Amelia a cocky smirk before following Steve and Sam out of the room, continuing to explain the logistics behind Tiboldt’s eyes.

“I know why you hate me, but what did he do?” Clint asked through a chuckle. 

“He made it worse,” she shot back cryptically.“I’m going to get some shut-eye.Call me if you have any updates.”

“Will do,” Tony threw a lazy wave at the spy, poking through a holographic model of another property. 

“Did she and Nat really try to sleep with you?” Clint asked the genius after the room fell silent.Bucky nearly choked trying to maintain a straight face. 

“Are you more concerned about your sister or your unrequited crush?” Tony replied without looking up. 

Clint made a face, trying to suppress the flush that swept across his face. 

“They both had a mission to find out as much about me as possible,” he continued.“I’ll let Natasha tell you the details when we get her home.”

That seemed to shut Clint up and the archer hurried out of the room mumbling about grown men not having crushes. 

That left Bucky waiting for Clint to be out of earshot.

“Did you?” he finally asked with raised eyebrows. 

Tony looked up at him, a smug grin spread across his features.

“Not with Natasha,” he simply replied.“Don’t you have somewhere to go brood?”

“Is it two o’clock already?” Bucky took the cue to part the room with a little piece of knowledge that didn’t quite give him the satisfaction he’d been hoping for.And for some reason, that bothered him. 

* * *

Amelia didn’t sleep.Instead, she found her way to one of the many kitchens in the large Tower to brew herself another pot of coffee.

She didn’t feel right going to sleep when there was so much to plan for in the next 32-hours.

“What happened to a nap?” Clint appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, his eyes falling on the coffee machine like a child at Christmas.“Please tell me that’s a fresh pot.”

“When’s the last time you’ve slept?” she challenged, gesturing for her older brother to have first dibs on the caffeinated drink. 

“Two days ago?Actually, I’m thinking closer to three.I should make sure Kate’s feeding Lucky…”

“You got a cat?” Amelia was genuinely caught by surprise.

“A dog,” he corrected.“He’s pretty great, but I haven’t been around as much since all of this happened… my friend’s been looking after him.”

“Kate?” Amelia asked with a tilt of her head.

“She’s absolutely terrible, you’d love her,” he took a long swallow of the hot liquid.“She’s also Hawkeye, technically…It’s a bit of logistics mess, but you get the idea.”

“Didn’t realize there were two of your running around,” she mused.“That’s kind of terrifying.”

“That’s why you two would get along.Nat likes her,” he added, passing Amelia a clean mug. 

“Well, someone has to keep you on your toes,” Amelia noted, leaning against the counter and savoring the warmth of the drink in the large, cold kitchen. 

The two siblings fell silent, comfortable in the quiet peace that had fallen between them.

“What happened, Mia?” Clint finally asked, breaking the quiet and watching his sister for her reaction.Amelia’s stomach gave a twist at the question.She’d been wanting to avoid the mushy stuff until Natasha was found… and even the, she had hoped to get back to Hawaii shortly thereafter.

She sighed, setting her mug down and frowning.

“Is this really a conversation you want to have right now?Didn’t I shoot you with an arrow last time?”

“So you hit me with a plate, I think that’s worth a little skeleton cleaning in our closets,” he reasoned.“You have to admit, you fit in here so well.This could be something _good_ for you.”

“I’m only here because of Natasha,” Amelia insisted sharply.“I owe her my life a million times over, and it’s the least I can do, but this isn’t something I want to do forever.I’m retired.”

“I’ve retired a few times too,” he replied.“But when you’re good at something…”

“Clint, you know how I feel about SHIELD and all of this,” she gestured to the building, shaking her head and reaching to take another sip of her drink.

“But Chisholm’s gone, that’s been over for years now-”

“That doesn’t mean I suddenly trust spies and secret agencies _again_ ,” she snapped, slamming her mug on the counter and shattering the ceramic across the surface.She pulled her hand back, hissing under her breath at the blood on her hand.“ _Shit_.”

“Here, let me see-,” 

“It’s fine,” she backed away, clutching at her hand and edging for the kitchen door.“I’m sorry. _I just_ \- I need to go.”

She high-tailed it out of the kitchen to where she tried to recall where the guest rooms were located.Wiping the blood on her shirt, she mumbled Tony’s directions under her breath until she slammed into what she assumed was a wall.

“Shit, sorry,” a voice apologized, helping steady her shoulders with large hands. 

“You’re fine,” she pulled away, turning to try and continue on the maze of halls. 

“Are you okay?” Bucky, she realized, questioned from behind her. 

“Totally fine,” she lied, glancing over her shoulder with a smile.“Just a little turned around.”

“You’re bleeding all over the floor.”

“Dammit,” she looked to her hand, the cut still bleeding freely.“I got mad at Clint and-”

“Did you punch out a window? _Jesus, that’s deep_ ,” he already had grabbed her by the wrist and was examining the wound.“There’s a piece of something in there…”

“That’s probably a piece of the mug,” she sighed. 

“You punched a mug?” his eyes shot up to hers in concern. 

“No I didn’t-, can you just point me to the guest rooms?I can take care of this myself,” Amelia huffed, still fuming a little from the ordeal with her brother. 

“My room is right here,” he pointed to the next door.“I have a first aid kit in my bathroom.”

“Is that how you lure all the ladies into your room?” she loosened her shoulders, allowing him to guide the way to the door. 

“Usually it’s the blue eyes, but that doesn’t seem to work on you,” he teased back, punching in a door code and allowing Amelia to enter the room first. 

Stepping inside, the first thing that struck Amelia was how open it was.Everything seemed to flow into one another, from the living area to the large bed to a corner where he stored personal effects. 

“Have a seat on the couch,” he instructed, disappearing into the bathroom in the back of the massive room. 

There were floor to ceiling windows covering almost every possible wall, letting in an enormous amount of sunlight that seemed to catch the light blue decor in the most calming way. 

It certainly wasn’t what she expected of the former Hydra asset’s room.She definitely expected a little more black.Maybe a few skulls. 

“All right, this is gonna hurt like hell, but I gotta disinfect it after I get that chunk out,” he called, returning to her side with a small box tucked under his arm.“Let me see.”

Amelia obediently held her hand out, letting him examine it with a tender touch.Resting it on his knee, he went for a pair of tweezers, pouring a bit of alcohol over the tips. 

“Deep breath,” he instructed softly, opening the wound to pull out the debris.“Did you Hulk smash the mug?Jeez, Mia…”

“My brothers know exactly how to push my buttons,” she confessed lightly.“Thank you for doing this, I’m sure you have better things to do.”

“I was actually going to grab a cup of coffee,” he replied, setting aside the tweezer and grabbing the bottle of alcohol.“Get ready, three… two…” he poured the burning liquid over the cut and Amelia let out a shout of pain. 

“What happened to one?!” she snapped with wide eyes. 

“You would have pulled away,” he shrugged with a smile.“But it’s not as bad as it looks, though I’m gonna have to give you a few stitches.”

“Those are my favorite,” Amelia replied dryly.

“I think women with scars are mysterious,” he commented, preparing the supplies while her hand continued to rest in his lap.

“I mean, my first thought was ‘what ever will _James Barne_ s think of this giant scar on my hand?’, so I’m glad you were clear,” she watched as his flesh and metal hand worked in synchrony with one another to prepare the needle. 

“You joke, but those stormy eyes tell a different story,” he let out a small laugh, lifting her hand again.“Did you want to talk about what happened with you and Clint?Apparently sharing your thoughts is a healthy thing to do, or so Sam says.”

“I could write a novel about what happened between Clint and I,” she watched the needle break the skin.“It’s fine.Honestly, it’s stupid now that I think about it.”

“You do have a temper,” he agreed, focusing all of his attention on the stitching in her hand.“Or maybe it’s a stubbornness?You’re absolutely infuriating.”

“ _Thanks_.”

“It’s a compliment,” he insisted, biting the end of the string and tying the wound off. 

“You have such a way with words, Barnes,” she snorted, studying his handiwork.Three neat stitches replaced the bloody mess she’d entered with.“I’m impressed.You should become a tailor.”

“I’d say you’d be surprised how many times I’ve had to stitch myself together, but I’m willing to bet you’re not too shabby yourself, given our shared career interests.”

“I’m retired,” Amelia repeated firmly.“After Nat’s safe, I’m back to waves and warmth and nature.”

He hummed under his breath, grabbing a gauze and wrapping her hand securely. 

“It’s a shame, you’re pretty good in a pinch.”

“Did you actually just compliment me?” Amelia gasped, holding her newly mended hand to her mouth.“Careful, my pants might just shoot off.What with your kind words and baby blues, my defenses might fall.”

“All part of my plan.”

“Thank you again,” she stood from the couch.“It is easier having someone else do the stitching.”

“Anytime,” he offered through another one of his grins.“I know things are tense right now, but try to get some rest before tomorrow.”

“Did the pot just call the kettle black?I slept at the hotel, remember?”

“That doesn’t count and we both know it, _Barton."_

* * *

 


	6. Gone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone please pay me to do this full time, it's way more fun than like, life. 
> 
> Enjoy!

* * *

“This is so cute,” Amelia adjusted the sight on her bow, checking the angles and making sure she was ready in case of an attack.“All three Barton siblings, bows at the ready.Just like the old days.”

Clint let out a sigh next to her.He wasn’t thrilled that she’d insisted on going into the field, as opposed to staying behind in the quinjet with Banner.Last time she’d seen Sarkissian, she was nearly taken out.He didn’t want to risk losing her in exchange for Nat. 

“Just stay back and keep your eyes on the prize,” he repeated for the fourth or fifth time since they’d taken position on a nearby rooftop.“You have the arrow tips figured out?” 

Amelia moved her fingertips in her glove and beamed when the quiver on her leg responded instantly. 

“This thing is crazy intuitive,” she mused, lifting an arrow and examining it. 

“I don’t think it’s fair that she gets the fancy arrows and I get the old fashioned kit,” Barney complained a few feet away from Amelia. 

“You’re a _convicted_ felon, still on parole,” Clint shot back.“I’m not giving you munitions.”

“The FBI gave me a gun,” he leaned into the ledge of the rooftop. 

“I’m not as stupid as the FBI,” Clint replies, a movement at the edge of the property catching his eye. 

“Male, mid-thirties, Auburn Hair,” Amelia recited to her brothers. 

“Chisholm?” Barney guessed while Clint nocked an arrow. 

“Let’s find out,” he murmured, releasing the arrow in the mans direction.The mystery man leapt out of the way, his head snapping toward the rooftop where Amelia gave him a small wave.“Chisholm.I’d recognize that over compensation anywhere.What a dick.God I hate him.”

“Did he get _fat_?” Amelia watched with her brothers while Chisholm sprinted to the side of the building to alert what she assumed was a security detail.“I definitely would have remembered an ass that big.”

“I mean, he’s probably not a regular at Whole Foods and Planet Fitness,” Clint chimed in, tossing his bow over his shoulder and starting for the next rooftop.“Let’s split up.First person to start the reunion, warn the others.Cap?”

“We’re on the ground,” Steve replies through the comm.“In position.”

“Stark?”

“Ready for evac as soon as we have Natasha.”

“Hey Falcon, you ready to party?” Amelia asked, readying herself at the edge of the building’s rooftop. 

“Thought you’d never ask, little bird,” he laughed, swooping up and catching Amelia by the waist after she jumped off the edge. 

“Today’s inflight entertainment will be provided by Redwing,” he teased, crossing the distance between the buildings and flinging the youngest Barton to the rooftop.He pressed a button on his wrist and the small drone shot past the female archer. 

Sam landed next to her, shielding the pair with his wings while Redwing blew up the locked metal door to the building.

“ _Move_ ,” came Steve’s voice, and it felt like a pulse of energy surged as everyone moved in sync toward the center of the building where Natasha, according to their reports, was located.

Sam’s wing expanded again and he went toward the edge of the rooftop. 

“Call me if you need me,” he saluted, firing bullets toward a group of security members on the ground. 

Amelia was left alone, moving down the stairs of the building to meet with Clint and Barney on Nat’s level.Supposedly the roof was the entrance with the least amount of armed goons. 

Or so Tony had told her. 

She slid onto the first level of the stairs, scanning the area when suddenly a handful of doors to the stairs burst open with thugs in full tactical gear. 

“ _Guys_ ,” Amelia’s voice dropped in volume on the comm, her fingers twitching for arrows that began to be loosed down the stairway to the bottom of the building. _“The schematics were super off.Like, super off.”_

Already a number of floors away from the rooftop, and completely swarmed by the black suited agents, she twisted her bow and created a staff, swinging it toward the nearest opponents and attempting to dodge the bullets as they flew. 

She grabbed a nearby man by the neck and threw him over the railing, hooking a zip tip from him to another man’s belt loop, they both dropped and she leapt onto the shoulders of another, pulling her staff against his neck and cutting off his air supply.Desperately, he slammed his back against a nearby wall, trying to shake the former spy off of him. 

“Do you need back-up?” Steve’s voice pressed through the communication line.“Amelia?” 

Amelia was flung forward when another masked guy pulled her off of the shoulders of the first and slammed her to the ground. 

“That’d be super-duper Steve,” she wheezed, catching her breath and rolling before the thug nearest to her could fire off a barrage of bullets.She kicked her foot out, sweeping his ankles and grabbing his gun, firing at the feet of the men above her who, despite the clear danger to their own side, had been firing at the group the entirety of this fight. 

She paused, a critical mistake on her part, as someone grabbed her from behind and used her own staff against her.Amelia gasped for air, her hips twisting and her arm slipping into the man’s side when she felt the familiar handle of a knife. 

The man was just blood when she finally managed to break through and toss him over the railing, snagging her weapon back as he fell.

When no one else was trying to kill her, Amelia scanned the stairway and realized that all of the thugs had been dealt with.

“Throwing them eight stories seems a little overkill,” Bucky’s voice appeared at her side and Amelia shrugged. 

“Better them than me,” she replied, flinging the knife into the wall.“What floor is this?”  


“Uh, floor 10,” he held the door open for her, closing it snuggly behind them in case someone decided to try and ambush them from behind. 

“Any signs of Sarkissian or the terrible trio?” Tony questioned the team.“Because I’m seeing nothing.I hate it, this is super gross and putting a bad taste in my mouth.”

“You too?” Barney chirped back.“Chisholm just ran off.What a weenie.”

“I wonder if that has anything to do with the six men Mia just took out,” Bucky replied, maneuvering behind Amelia as they crept through the eerily empty halls of the building.“We’re working on securing from the tenth floor down.”

“Wasn’t this supposed to be a condo complex?” Amelia nudged Bucky in the shoulder and pointed to a nearly empty office space.In the corner, boxes labeled with toxic placards and dates from the early nineties were neatly stacked.“There’s hazmat suits too…” she held up a plastic helmet to her companion.

“Think it’s a trap?” Bucky asked, pulling the lid off one of the boxes and thumbing through its contents. 

“ _Probably_ ,” she shrugged, throwing the helmet aside and peering over his shoulder at the files.“That’s Sarkissian’s company logo.”

“I know,” he grunted, frowning at the information in front of him.“How did they get their fortune?”

“Chemicals, originally,” Mia mused, lifting another box labeled from the mid-seventies and plucking a single file out.“Then real estate later on.Better PR.Ya know, placing this all here seems incredibly convenient.”

“That’s probably because you’re not supposed to be leaving this room alive,” a female voice at the entrance of the room teased coolly. 

“Oh _shit_ ,” Amelia spoke before James could get a good look at the voice’s owner, but Amelia’s body language said it all. 

“Natasha…” he muttered, watching the redhead carefully.“They’re playing with you.”

_“We have eyes on Nat.Tenth-,”_ Natasha went for Amelia first, tackling the blonde woman to the ground and digging into her side with a spider-bite, interrupting the message.“That _really_ hurt, Nat.”

Amelia heaved Natasha to the side, giving Bucky a chance to pull the redhead off of his companion.Natasha sprung away from both of them, ready to pounce like a deadly predator. 

“How do you break the mind control?” Bucky questioned Amelia, who shook her head with wide eyes. 

“I don’t know!Why on earth would I know that?!” the trio circled one another slowly.

“Weren’t you under Tiboldt’s mind control?” he shot back. 

“No, I was _truly_ a terrible person,” she hissed, dodging a punch from Natasha and rolling to the redhead’s side.The pair exchanged a few blows before Bucky stepped in and grabbed Natasha from behind, pinning her arms. 

“Try talking to her,” he ordered as the spy struggled, cursing him colorfully in Russian. 

“Oh geez, who switched Bucky out with the mind-control genius?” she mocked, trying to pull Natasha’s attention toward her.“Natasha.Tiboldt is a crazy ringmaster from a circus who has manipulated your mind, and I know how much you hate that.”

The spy kept fighting against Bucky’s metal arm, eventually finding a knife and digging it into his leg.Bucky faltered and she broke free, grabbing Amelia by the torso and pinning her back to the ground. 

“Oh,” Amelia winced at the impact.“Just like Paris again, huh?”

“Shut up,” Natasha hissed, aiming the knife Amelia’s neck.The former SHIELD agent reacted immediately, holding the brainwashed woman’s hand as far away from vital organs as possible. 

“Look, it’s like Paris again,” Tony burst through the window, releasing a number of tranquilizing darts toward Natasha.The redhead tried to fight through their effects, but eventually dropped off of Amelia, onto the ground. 

“That’s enough to take down a rhino,” Stark confirmed, his suit peeling away so he could kneel next to the unconscious spy.

“We’re both fine too,” Amelia chimed in, pulling herself up and checking on Bucky’s leg with a cringe.“In case you were wondering.”

“Eh,” Tony shrugged, checking Natasha’s pulse and opening her eyelids to check her pupils.“She’s out cold.”

“ _Yay_ ,” Amelia rolled her eyes.“Can we get out of here?Something about her saying we’re going to die in this room has left me a _little_ unsettled.”

“I agree completely,” Tony’s hand went to his ear.“ _Let’s pull out, back to the jet everyone.Package is secure._ ”

The line was silent. 

“Guys?” Tony tried again.“Rogers? _Clint_?No snide remark about pulling out?”

There wasn’t even static, people simply weren’t replying. 

“Well, _that’s_ concerning.Clint never misses an opportunity for a joke,” Amelia looked to Bucky.“You were probably right about this being a trap. _Awesome_.”

“ _Guys_ -,” Tony’s eyes went wide while Bucky and Mia bickered amongst themselves.His suit wrapped itself around him and his head shot in their direction.“There’s an incoming missile.”

The last memory Amelia had was Bucky shielding her with his arm and Tony’s suit transforming in the chaos of fire, smoke, and debris. 

* * *

 


	7. Home

* * *

“You get your ass back here young lady-!” Aunt Nellie screeched from the porch of the Barton family farmhouse.A broken beer bottle smashed at fifteen-year-old Amelia’s heels while she was sprinting down the laneway to an old truck with an old friend in the front seat.

She threw her bundle of belonging’s into the back, sliding into the passenger seat and slamming a hand on the dash.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” she looked over her shoulder while seventeen-year-old Buck Chisholm pressed down on the gas and floored it away from the dilapidated farm. 

“Your uncle’s gonna kill us,” he called to the blonde, a nervous edge to his voice.Amelia’s head was out the window, watching the road disappear through the cloud of dust and dirt behind them. 

“He’s gotta catch us first,” she grinned, dropping back down in the passenger seat and throwing her feet over the edge of the window.“Where to?”

“Where’s the fun in that?” he teased over the growl of the engine, pulling on the front of her baseball cap.“I’ll give you a hint at the county line.”

Amelia Barton just laughed, turning up the dial on the truck’s well-loved radio and threw her head back against the wind.No more fighting, no more yelling, no more bruises for either of them. 

They were finally free.

* * *

**Present**

 

Bucky wasn’t happy with this recent turn of events.

The Avengers had been compromised by a group of B-List criminals and now, he, Tony, Natasha, and Amelia were huddled up in a safe house Jersey. 

The explosion had scraped Bucky up a little bit, but it was fortunate that Tony had appeared when he did, as he’d been able to shield the group before too much damage had been done. 

Amelia had probably taken the worse of it, being the only _normal_ human without a nano-tech super suit.She’d hit her head on a piece of debris, and was presently resting under Bucky’s supervision in the living room.

Natasha had woken up once since they’d settled into the house, and she’d apologized quietly, clearly embarrassed by the actions she’d taken.Though, Bucky assured her all was forgiven, she still pulled away from his touch.After a quick meal she retried back to her room to sleep off the remainder of the sedatives.

Tony had locked himself in the master bedroom, contacting all Avengers and warning them about the circumstances.Thus far, there wasn’t any news of further compromised heroes, but Tony wanted to be safe and ordered all active and reserve team members to go dark. 

While he wrapped up things from a logistical side, Bucky sat in the living room in a chair across from Amelia on the sofa, lost in thought from the last few hours.

He knew it was a trap.Even Amelia had joked about it once they’d gotten into the apartment building so easily.Ophelia played them like a fiddle and now had some of the world’s greatest heroes were under her control.If he could have taken down governments _overnight_ with Hydra, there was no telling what Ophelia and her circus crew could do with a bundle of Avengers. 

Bucky was growing anxious waiting for Tony to emerge from the bedroom with any news or updates.To him, every second wasted was a chance at catastrophe, and in turn, lives lost.He couldn’t bear to let his friends live with that on their minds later, so Bucky wanted to move fast. 

Amelia stirred slightly, repositioning herself on her side and pulling the small blanket she had closer to her shoulders. 

Granted, they didn’t have much in terms of man power.That was the part Tony was supposed to update Bucky on.Who they had left, and what they could do to stop the potential end of the world. 

“You're thinking too loudly,” Amelia complained, her voice partially muffled by a small throw pillow.“It’s making my head feel like I was caught in an explosion.Shhhhh….”

She rolled to face him, her face scrunched in pain when she touched the back of her head with the tips of her fingers. 

“I’m beginning to think you enjoy me watching you sleep,” Bucky replied, leaning forward against his knees.“Don’t touch your head.You took a pretty nasty hit.”

“That explains the headache,” she mumbled, closing her eyes a moment and letting out a long breath.“What did I miss?This doesn’t look like a medical bay.”

Bucky hesitated, unsure of where to start. 

“The team was compromised,” Natasha voiced from the entryway of the living room.Amelia sat up abruptly, her body tensing at the spy’s entrance.“Sarkissian has Tiboldt, Chisholm, and Duquesne under _her_ employment.” 

“Are _you_ ok?” Amelia blinked at her friend, not even registering the new information, only concern for her formally brainwashed partner.Bucky couldn’t help but crack a smile at the exchange.

Natasha crossed in front of the sofa, dropping down at Amelia’s feet and giving them a squeeze over the blanket. 

“I’m fine,” she assured her quietly.“A bit of a headache, but I’m sure I’ll live.”

“Join the club,” Amelia snorted, pulling her legs under her to allow Natasha more room.“Sarkissian gets Duquesne and crew out of jail, kidnaps you, and pulls the Avengers under her control.Am I missing anything?”

“She let us have Nat _back_ ,” Bucky supplied, pulling at one of his metal knuckles with a frown.None of this made any sense.Targeting Clint made sense initially, maybe even pulling in the rest of the siblings and allowing Duquesne and company their little revenge.But what role did Ophelia Sarkissian play? 

“Seems stupid that she’d let a Red Room agent and a former Hydra asset get away, but keep her hands on Captain America,” Amelia mused out loud, leaning back against the sofa and sending Natasha an inquisitive look.“Do you remember anything?”

“Tony’s already gone through this already,” Natasha waved her off with a brisk shake of her head.“Nothing.” 

Natasha’s tone may have seemed calm to the average bystander, but it felt like both Bucky and Amelia sensed there was a deeper emotion that she was refusing to allow forward. 

Amelia took the cue and changed the subject. 

“There are other Avengers now, right?” she asked the pair.“Thor and those other guys?”

“Can you even name any of them?” Natasha challenged, a smirk playing on her lips.

“The space girl?Witch person?The robot?I feel like there’s a spider and an ant person?” Amelia pulled a face, obviously struggling with specific names.“I was happy on my little island without having to worry about world terrorists, that’s your job.That’s what _retirement_ means.”

“Can’t keep a bird out of the air,” Natasha murmured.Bucky spied Amelia open her mouth to retort, but the door to the master bedroom opened, revealing an exhausted looking Tony. 

“We’re ridiculously short staffed,” he sighed, stumbling into the kitchen and grabbing a mug out of one of the rickety kitchen cabinets.“Carol and Thor are off planet, Strange is around if we absolutely need him but there’s something about a demon and a dark dimension he’s dealing with.Scott and Hope are on their way, Peter and May were just picked up by Happy and they’re meeting us tomorrow at our next stop.” 

“What about Wanda and Vision?”Natasha questioned. 

“I’m having them follow a few leads Maria sent over,” Tony explained, inhaling the contents of a coffee container with closed eyes.“Shuri and T’Challa are in Taiwan, but they’re locking down all sensitive files that the compromised team members might have access to.And Bruce bringing Scott and Hope over.I think that’s everyone…”

“Fury and Maria have been fully briefed?” Amelia asked with raised brows.“You’d think he’d be getting a little old for this brainwashing bullshit.”

“I think he secretly loves it,” Bucky joked.“Keeps him young.”

“I thought that’s what the eye patch was for,” she grinned, earning a snort from Tony in the kitchen.

“If you ever get a chance to meet Carol, ask her about that eye patch,” his voice was nearly swallowed out by the gurgle of the kitchen’s old coffee maker.“Barnes, why didn’t you ever update this place?I’m afraid I’m going to get polio from this thing.”

“You’re luck I never connected it to your systems,” he reminded the billionaire pointedly.“Otherwise we wouldn’t have had anywhere to hunker down.”

“I don’t like it when you say the word, hunker,” Tony commented grabbing his mug and taking a large swallow of the black liquid.“It tastes just like dirt.Perfect, just how Clint used to make it.”

“You said there were a few leads,” Amelia voiced after he started pouring mugs for the group in the living room.Bucky noticed that her playful body language had shifted slightly, her fingers drumming on the side of her coffee mug while she waited for Tony to respond. 

“Believe it or not, Rogers is pretty noticeable in public,” he sat next to Bucky, stretching his back and leaning back into the couch.

“He’s a terrible spy,” Natasha assured her friend with a curt nod. 

“Clint and Barney are really good at disappearing though,” Amelia continued, her brows furrowed in frustration.“Wasn’t Sam some type of special ops too?Sure, Rogers stands out, but they _all_ know how to hide.Who knows how much damage they can do underground.There’s a whole market for secret identities… I’m sure you already know…”

And they did.The group fell quiet, each in their own thoughts.

“What are you thinking?” Bucky asked, sipping at his drink and scowling at the bitter taste. 

“I think I can get Chisholm out,” she spoke confidently, though Bucky noticed that her body language still betray hesitation.

“That didn’t work very well with Sarkissian,” Tony voiced before Bucky could chime in the exact same thought. 

“Sarkissian was… a risk,” Amelia acknowledged with a tight frown.“But we did get valuable information, even if my cover was blown.Chisholm…”

“He wouldn’t hurt her,” Natasha spoke up, looking directly toward the men.“SHIELD has dealt with him in the past, and he has a pretty predictable pattern of behavior toward Mia.”

Tony perked at that comment.

“Is this the guy your brother was-,” he began, grinning from ear to ear.

“Yes,” Amelia cut him off sharply, her eyes going to the ground.“It’s complicated, but I think I can bring him out if we need to.”

“It could be a good start,” Bucky offered to the group.“We get Hope or Scott with her for backup, we wait at a neutral point and when Amelia has a chance, we bring him in.”

“Unless, Sarkissian has a similar idea,” Tony hypothesized.“She’s waiting for us to pop up so she can snag the final Barton in the collection.We have to remember that the last time anyone dealt with Duquesne was when the three of _them_ sent him to prison and shut down the entire circus mob front thing.It was a huge blow, and we’re talking on a _national_ level.”

“Do you think she was tied to the money somehow?” Natasha asked him with a quirked brow. 

That was Bucky’s thought as well, considering how powerful the Ring Bros Circus syndicate had gotten before the Barton’s blew a hole in it.At one point, mayors and entire police departments had been under its payroll.

“She’s a chemical manufacturer,” Amelia groaned, holding the side of her head and falling back into a stack of pillows.“Or at least, she _was._ Now I don’t even know what the hell they’re doing.Isn’t her father running for congress?” 

“When I started auditing my business, the money trail was endless.There’s no telling who is paid to do what, and considering the number of people who’ve quietly stepped away when Sarkissian needed them to… I wouldn’t be surprised,” Tony sighed, finishing his coffee and setting aside the mug. 

“Have you done anything to piss them off on a corporate level?” Bucky turned to Tony. 

“That’s a question for Pepper,” he replied with a wave of his hands.“I just make things and spend the money terribly.”

“Is _she_ safe?” Amelia suddenly vocalized, sitting up abruptly.

“There’s a specific auto-protocol I created that isn’t available to anyone except Cap, Rhodey, and… I need to go make a phone call,” Tony hustled out of the room, calling out instructions to FRIDAY.

* * *

After her and Buck’s grand escape from Iowa, they’d worked odd jobs over the years and eventually caught up with Clint and Barney in the Ring Bros traveling Circus.

When introducing herself as the youngest Barton, Tiboldt hired her on the spot, and had her training in different areas to find her talent. 

Buck showed a knack for shooting, and Clint took him on as an apprentice. 

It wasn’t a perfect life; but it was home.It was closer to home than Amelia had ever felt before. 

Time passed, and one night when she was eighteen, she caught Buck watching her during one of her riskier jumps.She missed, dropping into the net below and slamming her fists into the mesh with anger.She’d been stressed all week and the show was in less than twenty-four hours.

Bucky crawled over, climbing on the mesh and tossing her a bag of popcorn. 

“I hate popcorn,” she grumbled, still opening the edge of the bag and stealing a handful.“What am I doing wrong?”

Buck sat cross legged next to her and looked up at the equipment thoughtfully. 

“I think you’re getting too into your head,” he suggested lightly, standing and offering a hand.They climb out of the net and he guided her toward the tumbling area.Setting aside their snack, he instructed her to stand on one of the raised platforms. 

“Ok, you’re supposed to do that twisty-flip thingy?” he shrugged at her laughter at butchering the terms. 

“Yes,” she nodded, her ponytail bobbing behind her.“ _The twisty-flip thingy.”_

“Ok, now, do it,” he stood near the base, watching her quickly calculate distances and make her leap.She must have misjudged the distance and caught her ankle at the wrong angle on the other side.Yelping in pain, she pulled back and tumbled backwards off of the platform, toward the ground a few feet below. 

Buck was under her in seconds, catching her before she could hurt anything else on the hard dirt ground. 

The pair were equally startled by his actions; Amelia for not hitting the ground, and Buck for not having dropped her.

“When did you get so muscular?” she teased, squeezing his shoulder, a peppering of a blush spreading across her cheeks.They caught one another’s gaze and froze. 

Maybe it was the way the moonlight slipped into the tent that night, or the small blush on the tips of Amelia’s ears, or the pure adrenaline of the moment; but Buck Chisholm kissed her.

It’d taken him some time, but what Buck Chisholm hadn’t realized until that moment was that he’d fallen in love with his best friend.

They pulled away, with Amelia’s fingers lingering lightly on the edge of his jaw line.

“We should probably get your ankle…” he darted his eyes away, embarrassed by the momentary loss of control.

“My ankle…” her breaths came short and she nodded her head robotically, continuing to watch his face.“Right… my ankle…”

* * *

 


	8. Ringleader

* * *

Clint hated playing pretend, especially when it came to these assholes. 

If he thought he hated Tiboldt’s annoying voice or Chisholm’s laugh years back?He despised them now.

But they thought he and Barney were under their control like Sam and Steve, so he had to play along with their terrible jokes, their BO, and their awful plots of revenge. 

“…That’s when we’ll kill that Russian _whore_ ,” Duquesne grinned over one of his many, many, blades.He wiped down the edge with a soft cloth and tucked it away.

Clint internally grimaced at the weak threat.Without Tibolt playing his games, Natasha would have eaten these fools for breakfast. 

From what Clint could gather, they were still the same two-bit criminals they’d been a decade before.Without someone signing their paychecks, they were all bark and no bite.Honestly, he was pretty sure the group wouldn’t know what to do if they’d actually _managed_ to kill the Black Widow. 

It just seemed like killing the good guys was what bad guys did and since they were bad guys…It was a wonder Duquesne and Tiboldt rose as far as they had in the whole circus scheme.Chisholm, on the other hand, had garnered an impressive reputation since the days of cleaning elephant poop and sneaking beers with him and Barney. 

He’d watched Clint and Barney the closest, which served to further annoy Clint with engaging in his role as the brainwashed victim.They’d kept the heroic quartet together initially, before Chisholm voiced that Clint and Barney were slippery.Now, the brothers were tied up and forced to listen to Tiboldt ramble on about his prison sentence. 

It was Clint’s own special hell, but he knew that he needed to stay patient.It’d be easy enough to break the mind control on Sam and Steve- assuming he could get a good hit to their heads in- but he wanted to find out exactly what they were planning before escaping. 

So far, no one had even mentioned his estranged sister, which struck him as odd, given how often Duquesne bitched about him and Barney. 

He almost wondered if somewhere, perhaps, Chisholm still had a soft spot for the female acrobat.If so, _good_ , Clint could use that to his advantage and score an extra kick in the nuts to the back-stabbing bastard. 

It’s probably what Mia would have wanted, assuming she wasn’t already rearing up to do it herself.

“Barton!” Chisholm barked in the brothers’ direction, earning non-committal grunts from both the men.Clint glanced around the room and realized that the dull ache in the back of his head was gone, Tiboldt and Duquesne were gone.“You can cut the bullshit.”

“I thought we were actually doing a phenomenal job,” Clint grumbled with an eye roll.“What the hell is going on, Buck?”

“Depends who you ask,” Chisholm pulled a blade for his belt, nodding toward the men’s tied wrists.Barney held his up first, quirking a brow at the former-friend. 

“What gives?Thought you’d be the first on the Barton hit list,” he commented with a smirk.“Mia get you real bad again?”

“I owe her a favor,” Buck mumbled, reaching for Clint’s hands.The moment Clint was freed, he reared back and head butted the former carnie as hard as he could.Chisholm fell back, sprawling, clutching his now, _very-much_ , broken nose with a muttered slew of curse words.

“I deserved that,” he finally relented, wiping excess blood on his sleeve.

Clint let out a low snort.

“More than that, ya asshole,” he agreed, rubbing at his forehead before looking toward the only entrance to the room.“What’s your plan?We need to bust Cap and Falcon out.”

“Eh, we can’t do that,” Buck held up a hand when Clint moved toward the exit, earning a scowl from the famous archer.

“And why not?” Clint demanded.

“Yeah, holding Captain America hostage is kind of bad PR,” Barney agreed, stretching his arm over his shoulder, watching the scene with almost a hint of amusement. 

“Because they’re part of _Ophelia’s_ plan, you’re not,” Buck clarified quietly.“You two were just a fun side project to get those idiots on board.She needs Tiboldt on her side.”

“The mind control,” Clint groaned.“Of course.She Hydra?Don’t tell me she’s Hydra… I might just cry.”

“She’s like, fifth generation Hydra,” Chisholm confirmed with a curt nod.“Which is why we can’t fuck with her just yet.”

“I’m not about to leave my teammate to be mind controlled by Hydra,” Clint began to protest before Barney set a hand on his shoulder to silence him.

“He has a point,” he reasoned.“If we want to stop her, we need to know exactly why she needs Steve and Sam.”

The brothers looked to Chisholm for further explanation, but the carnie just shrugged.

“She doesn’t tell me shit,” he replied.“I just know that you guys were just a perk for Duquesne and Tiboldt.Which means you need to escape and keep them busy.The less Tiboldt can help Ophelia, I think we can all agree, the better.”

He kicked a large black duffle bag toward the Barton siblings.When Clint opened it, he found that all of their gear had been gathered neatly, excluding Sam and Steve’s equipment. 

“What are you going to do?” Barney questioned while Clint tossed him his older archery set. 

“I’m staying put, keeping my ear to the ground and trying to stop whatever Ophelia has planned,” he stated matter of fact. 

“Seems like someone’s had a change of heart,” Clint mused, hooking his quiver to his belt.“You gone soft, Chisholm?”

“No,” he stated firmly.“But Ophelia has global domination-vibes and I happen to like the world as it is.More money in my pocket and such, I’m sure you understand.Besides, I think we can all agree that any plan involving the _Ringmaster_ and the _Swordsman_ in positions of power, is probably best shut down quickly and quietly.”

Neither brother could disagree with that logic.They tossed aside the duffle bag and started toward the back door. 

“So, we just leave?” Clint asked, unsure how else to proceed with the rescue attempt. 

“Yeah, you punched the shit out of my face, so I’ll just tell ‘em you got the upper hand, being an Avenger and all,” Chisholm shrugged again.“Just don’t bother with Rogers or Wilson.They’re offsite and you’re just gonna waste your time.”

“Coulda opened with that,” Clint mumbled, nudging Barney in the shoulder.The oldest Barton eyed Chisholm distrustfully a final time before hurrying after his brother. 

“This is totally a trap,” Barney voiced while Clint double checked corners, clearing halls before before they moved for the building exit. 

“Maybe, or he does have a good point about Tiboldt and Duquesne,” he considered lightly.“They _are_ idiots.”

“He’s trailing us to get to Mia,” Barney hypothesized. 

“Probably,” Clint agreed while they slipped through the unlocked exit into what seemed like an abandoned shopping center.“But you know Mia, she’s already six steps into tracking Chisholm down, so it’s just a matter of time before they cross paths.”

“And that’s a _good_ thing?” Barney’s brows shot up in surprise.“I nearly lost a hand last time.”

“It’ll be therapeutic,” Clint grinned, darting toward a sedan parked in the back lot.He kicked the window in and began hot-wiring the ignition. 

“Didn’t she nearly kill him?"

“ _Yup_.”

“And we’re just gonna let that happen to our inside guy?”

“ _Yup_.”

“Why?”

“Because then _Mia_ will be our inside girl.”

“What?”

“Just stick along and you’ll figure it out.”

* * *

 


	9. Circus

* * *

“Chisholm just _let them go_ ,” Amelia snapped the cell phone she’d grabbed from Tony shut.“Just untied them and let them out.Said that Ophelia didn’t _need_ them.”

All she got in return was a group of confused gazes. 

“He’s playing at something,” came Bucky’s immediate response.

“No _shit_ ,” Amelia agreed.“Slippery bastard.”

“Do we still want to try and meet up with him?” Tony questioned the group.“Because there might be some value in the baggage between him and Mia.We could dig in deeper to what Sarkissian wants with Steve and Sam.”

“I’m still in, if you guys are,” she looked between Nat and Bucky.“I’d love to get a good swing at his jaw.”

“What even happened between you guys?” Bucky finally questioned, earning an icy glare from Natasha.Amelia felt her stomach drop.It was a matter of time before the cat got dragged out of the bag.

“It’s bound to come out,” Amelia finally murmured, her expression souring while she ran through the memories.It still felt so fresh in her mind, even though it’d been almost five years back.“Chisholm and I were close growing up.We got even closer at the circus…”

“You _banged_ ,” Tony clarified, earning an embarrassed scowl from Amelia. 

“Yeah, we _banged_ ,” she sighed.“When we broke up the circus crime syndicate with SHIELD, he had the opportunity to be recruited, but turned it down.Buck always had an issue with authority and SHIELD is the ultimate authority.”

The memories were bitter-sweet.On the one hand, they were some the happiest moments Amelia had in her life.Whenever she’d been with Buck, she’d been free.They had no limitations, no borders or rules.Just raw passion and raw energy, two things that could get explosive if left unrestrained for too long.And it blew up in their faces. 

“He took odd jobs as a mercenary, or muscle for small gangs, things like that,” she continued, pulling her legs under her and frowning.“Ran into from time to time and he’d give me a little intelligence.”

“More than intelligence, I bet,” Tony snickered.Amelia threw a pillow at the genius and groaned.

“You’re worse than Barney!” she protested, the red still rising in her cheeks.“The point being, I had a decent, albeit dysfunctional, relationship with the guy.”

“Until…?” Bucky pressed, narrowing his brows at the former spy as he listened intently.

“Until he fell behind a cause that I couldn’t forgive,” she explained.“He betrayed Clint’s cover in a mission, he’d gotten Barney’s dumb ass involved, and it was a mess.I’d gotten some intelligence from a lower ranking guy and realized that Buck was at the _top_ of everything.”

God, it’d been so ugly.Amelia had felt gutted once she had realized Buck’s true intentions.He’d been selling a potent drug and he sold to everyone who bought, including children and families that were falling apart from addiction. 

He’d made promises to her in the past about never getting involved in drugs, and she’d confronted him about it after her interrogation.She hadn’t even changed out of her SHEILD uniform when she charged into his hotel room that night. 

He was in bed with one of his generals, a brunette named Tilda who spoke with the fakest french accent Amelia had ever had the misfortune of hearing. 

It was too much for her and she began screaming at him, even pulling her gun at him and threatening to turn him in right there. 

It was for _them_ , he’d assured her, begging while he ushered _Tilda_ out of the room and struggled to pull on a pair of boxers. _Their_ dream. 

He’d moved toward her and she fired a warning shot at his feet.They both knew it was an intentional miss.Barton’s _always_ hit their targets. 

That’s the moment she knew it became clear to him that her heart had been completely shattered.She wasn’t playing games anymore.The straw had finally broken the camel’s back. 

Amelia wasn’t stupid, she knew the relationship she had with him wasn’t perfect, but he’d never lied and hurt her like he had during that mission.They could have had a future.When they got out of the spy and secrets business, they could have made a family and a home. 

Or so she’d disillusioned herself for all of those years. 

“He promised to step away when I asked him about it and told me about a meeting with a larger distributor later that night.He gave me a list of his gang members and promised that he’d shut down after paying for that shipment.”

She’d been fuming.She called Nat and Clint, explained what was going on and told him to take care of Barney before the idiot got himself caught in some nasty crossfires. 

Chisholm had assured her that he’d be at the drop point to negotiate the deal, but when Amelia fired a bundle of cocaine out of what she thought was Chisholm’s hand, it turned out to be her brother, Barney.

“He double crossed on me and had Barney broker the deal instead of him,” she sighed.“He jumped ship, but told the distributor that we’d been on their tails and threw our entire mission to the wind.Clint got ambushed at the second drop point, and Nat barely pulled him out in one piece.Plus, we had to get Barney out of there out of some fucked up familial loyalty.”

He’d played her like a fiddle.He knew exactly what they’d be interested in, and it wasn’t a lower level local distributor, his supplier was big fish, so of course she’d become more consumed by that.Throw her misguided older brother into the mix?It was a perfect escape route.

What Amelia didn’t mention to the group was the aftershocks.The pure pain of hearing nothing from the man she’d loved most for weeks. 

Since they were kids, they’d never had such a long radio silence. 

Amelia worked a few low level missions for SHIELD before finally handing in her resignation. 

There was still a smidge of hope in her heart.They’d made a pact, where if they became separated for whatever reason, they’d meet somewhere safe. 

The Barton farm house had been willed to Amelia after the death of her aunt and uncle.The farm itself had largely been untouched since she had taken the inheritance, but she used the farmhouse as an off the books oasis; one that only her brothers, Natasha, and Buck Chisholm were aware of. 

The pact had been to meet up at the farmhouse after things cooled down, if they ever had to split town for whatever reason.It was to protect Amelia’s reputation, and clear Chisholm of any smoke trails. 

She’d arrived shortly after resigning from SHIELD and began tidying up the dusty house.She ran to the market, picked up some essentials a bottle of whiskey the size of her head. 

And then she waited. 

A day turned into a week, which fell into a month. 

Every night that summer she sat on the porch, sipping at her bottle and watching the laneway for his shadow to appear. 

Natasha was the first to show up after Amelia had been out of communication for a few months.The redhead had shared a drink and the pair reminisced about their missions and partnership.She stayed a few nights, trying to coax Amelia out of her funk by offering a role with the Avengers, possibly as a field agent. 

Amelia turned her down, making excuses about dry wall that needed to be patched and maybe starting up the farm again. 

The next morning, Natasha was gone and Clint replaced her with a six-pack and a few fresh bandages around his face. 

He joked about the mission he’d just gotten back from and complained about his shitty apartment.He made a comment about Chisholm later in the week and Amelia all but banished him from the property. 

Barney dropped by next, teasing her about shooting a hole through his hand during the drug mission:

_ “Look, I’m a saint now, I’m holey, get it Mia?” _

Eventually he mentioned having seen Chisholm the next town over a few weeks back and earned his exile with Mia throwing his suitcase out the second story window. 

Buck wasn’t going to meet her.He’d given up.All of that talk of pushing aside his morals for their future was bullshit, he was a con-artist who had tricked her into an easy lay and a source of back-up for his felonious activities.

Amelia hired a company to pack up her few belongings from the farmhouse and she made a few phone calls. 

She was moving to the most isolated place she could find and still cash her SHIELD pension.

Maybe, if she was lucky, she’d get swallowed by a shark or dissolved in a volcano. 

She moved to a small plot of land on the Big Island of Hawai’i she’d purchased through a friend of Fury’s and after setting up her house, she scared Clint and Barney away, and finally found her peace, Buck Chisholm be damned.

* * *

 


	10. Lost

* * *

**“I don't know if I want to know where you've been**  
****

**Lost dog**

**Maybe I'll let you in**

 

**Home's not a word you say**

**Something made you stray**

**Off like a feather in the wind**

**Where do you find the ground?**

 

**Let yourself be found**

**If I open my door**

**Make you my friend**

 

**Are you gonna run off and get _lost_ again?”**

 

**-Sarah Jarosz ( _Lost Dog_ )**

* * *

Amelia splashed icy water onto her face, her eyes still exposing her exhaustion, despite the small nap she’d managed to get in after her explanation about Chisholm. 

She could hear Natasha, Tony, and Bucky going over different strategies and theories as to what Ophelia Sarkissian and her gang of carnies were planning, but until more specific information could be gathered from Amelia’s recon, they were just running in circles. 

Hope, Scott, and Bruce would be at the safe house soon, then they’d move toward the location Clint had given them for Chisholm.Her brothers would roundevouz once they secured the second safe house, and hopefully had a little more intel about Steve and Sam. 

Amelia, meanwhile, had decided on her own agenda.

Natasha and her brothers were safe.That changed everything.  

She owed these people nothing beyond those terms, and that’s what she intended to follow through with.If she could get Chisholm to talk a little more before she left town, more power to the Avengers, but Amelia had no intention of going to war with Hydra over something as menial as a kidnapping.She knew he Avengers would have no problem stopping Ophelia and whatever she had plotted. 

How many times over had they saved the world?

These guys had dealt with worse and been fine, she wasn’t a key player and she didn’t want to play by their rules.It was opportune that both she and the team wanted Buck, so she’d go her way and leave him gift wrapped for Clint or Barney to find. 

She’d have to find a new exile location, since now her little house on the island had been fully compromised.Maybe she’d move back to the farm house?She’d have to wait a little while, that’d be the first place they’d check, but maybe after a year or two she could quietly slip in and pass her time by watching the corn grow.God, she hated snow though, and that house got a decent bit each winter, if memory served her. 

Why’d her brothers have to ruin her tropical paradise?

“You can leave whenever you want,” a voice pulled Amelia out of thoughts while she stared at her reflection.“Just so we’re clear.”

Looking past her shoulder, she caught Bucky’s reflection leaning against the doorway of the open bathroom door.

“What gave it away?” she joked, drying her hands off on a nearby towel and turning to face him. 

“It’s what I would have done,” he confessed.“I promised to help get Natasha, and then your family got caught up.They’re secure, that’s your mission.”

“You’re good,” she offered.“What was I gonna do next?”

“You’d give us Chisholm, but I knew the second Tony walked you through the plan that you were going to do something else,” he stated, following after her while she retreated back to her guest room on the second floor. 

“Oh, I like this game,” she mused with a grin, dropping down on the twin mattress and looking up at the ceiling.“If I didn’t lead you guys to Chisholm, how would you get your hands on him?”

“Hopefully with a big red bow, but I’m trying not to be too optimistic,” he teased back, propping himself against the wall and watching her. 

“I was thinking a blue bow, but we’ll see what I can do,” she promised lightly.“Don’t say anything to Nat just yet.She’s been trying to get me to join your little Girl Scout troop for a while now and I’m just not interested.”

“You just want to be left alone,” he stated knowingly. 

“Exactly,” she nodded, rolling to her side and looking at him.“You get it.”

“If my best friend wasn’t being manipulated by his literal worst enemy, I’d probably tag along with you, a sunny beach sounds pretty nice,” Bucky conceded.“Though, you probably wouldn’t go back to Hawaii, would you?Too easy to trace.”

“Maybe Tahiti?I’ve heard it’s beautiful this time of year,” Amelia smirked, though when she paused, she could see the mask Bucky wore fade just slightly.“You’re playing me and I can’t figure out why.Would you miss my company?”

He looked taken aback by the comment, his expression only exposing a weakness for a second before he fell back into his cool demeanor.

“You’re good,” he mused, readjusting his position and moving to the edge of her bed.He shoved her feet aside and made himself comfortable.“You’re a good fit, and I think you could help us do a lot of damage.”

“The real reason is that you’ve fallen in love with me, don’t lie,” she joked, stretching her legs and dropping her feet in his lap.“I get it, I tend to leave a trail of heartbreak wherever I go, but don’t take this personally, Steve’s more my type.”

“Not felon carnies?”

“Well, maybe there’s some exceptions, but I don’t think you’ve committed a felony recently,” she continued, leaning back into her pillow. 

He pushed her feet off of his lap and repositioned himself over her, staring down at her with an amused smirk. 

“You’d be surprised,” he muttered.She could feel his gaze trying to penetrate the fake, casual expression she sported, but to no avail.A small grin crept over her features while she watched with amusement. 

“Actually, from this angle, you’re pretty cute,” Amelia commented, reaching and running a thumb over the thin five o’clock shadow that traced his cheeks.“Maybe we could be reckless together… I hope you like long road trips and changing your identity.”

“Is that who you are?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.She offered a sad smile in return, her hand dropping to his on the mattress where she gave it a tentative squeeze. 

“Is that who you want me to be?”

* * *

 


	11. Chisholm

* * *

Buck Chisholm knew he’d fucked up all of those years ago. 

He made a risky choice and a bad decision; that ended up costing him everything. 

He had loved Amelia Barton, more than anything in the living world.He loved her smile, her laughter, her _everything_.All he wanted to do was provide the life that he knew she deserved. 

He’d found out a way to make some quick money, killed the right people and positioned himself well.It was supposed to be easy, fast, and he’d pull himself right out.Then, finally, he’d be able to steal away with Amelia and fulfill every promise he’d made since they were kids. 

Or so he had thought. 

SHIELD had caught onto him early on and his plan was going down in flames.Clint had even approached him before Amelia was pulled into the mission and warned him to back off, to disappear for a while, but Buck had been stubborn to see this to the end and get his paycheck. 

There was a greater mission in his heart and he was going to follow through, no matter what.

He’d met with one of his generals, trying to push some of the pressure off his shoulders and the woman had him naked in bed before he could even protest. 

It was under the pressure of her hips that it dawned on him that he’d made a serious mistake.

When Amelia had burst in, yelling about his lying, she froze when she saw the two of them together.

The last time Buck had seen Amelia with that look of dread and agony had been when he’d held her hand while they buried her parents in the local graveyard. 

Tilda yelled and ran off somewhere, and he tried to spit out his lengthy plan, but Amelia’s guard was back up.She’d built a wall around herself, and unlike all of those years back, Buck was now on the outside of it. 

He gave her some intel, lazily passed the mantle to Tilda and left town less than an hour after Amelia left his hotel room. 

 He went back home after that. 

Everything always ended up in that backwards town in Iowa. 

He visited his mother, promising to stay a while, and drove his truck around the county, taking in all of the familiar sights, even stopping at the graveyard to drop a handful of flowers for his father and the Bartons. 

When he ended up at the Barton farmhouse, he hesitated to step on the front porch.Was he even welcome anymore? 

He’d memorized the pact that he and Amelia had made that night in Rome.He’d gotten stirred up with Hydra and had happily fed her every piece of intel that he knew about the operation. 

The room had been still when she asked him if they should make a contingency plan.They did live dangerous lives after all.He agreed and she suggested the farmhouse as a hideaway.She’d inherited it recently and had her boss wipe official connections off the record. 

“We wait until things calm down and the smoke clears,” she had nibbled at his jaw line and he’d pulled her into a more passionate kiss before they fell into the mattress in a fit of laughter. 

“ _Deal_ ,” he promised, tucking a stray hair behind her ear.The moonlight and the city lights had created the perfect veil of peace over the space.They’d been happy, and he had screwed it up. 

“You shouldn’t be here,” Barney Barton stepped out of the shadows of the farm house, his hand was hovering over the pistol at his hip, but his body language suggested that he didn’t want a fight. 

“I need to talk to her,” he insisted, but Barney let out a ‘tsk’ and shook his head.

“You’re gonna leave town tonight and you’re not going to think another thought about her again,” he threatened, his voice giving Chisholm a chill up his spine. 

“And what if I don’t?” he gauged, taking a step up toward the porch.An arrow hit the wood in front of him and he looked to the roof where Clint was sliding down the shingles to the porch. 

“I won’t miss next time,” he picked up where Barney had left.“I don’t think you understand what you did to her.”

“I understand completely, but I just need to clear a misunderstanding-,” he protested but Clint was in his face.

“Was that before or after you stuck your dick in another woman?” he questioned with a growl.“You even knew she was in town that night, I warned you to get out.”

“It’s not like she didn’t fuck Stark!Lord knows, who _else_ to get her sacred intelligence for SHIELD!” Chisholm found himself vocalizing, instantly regretting the words as soon as they fell out.“I’m sorry, that-,”

“You get the hell off this property,” Barney had pulled a fuming Clint back.“You leave, and you never return.If you attempt to contact her, or even pass her in the market and glance her direction, it’ll be a race to see which one of us stops your heart first.”

The brothers had narrowed their steely gazes on Buck and the former criminal knew he’d lost. 

“I do love her,” he said, stepping off the porch back onto the sandy drive way.“I always will.”

“Whatever you say,” Barney snapped.“Actions speak louder than words, Chisholm.”

He hadn’t seen the Bartons since that day, at least, until Jacques and Tiboldt showed up at his apartment in the Bronx promising a big job that would crush the Barton family once and for all. 

They mentioned an investor, a woman that Chisholm immediately knew was tied with Hydra.The whole plan seemed fishy, but he agreed, telling the men vaguely of the threats the siblings had left him with. 

“Even little Mia?” Tiboldt almost looked upset at the realization.“Should have realized she was just as a big of a whore as that Romanoff.”

It took everything in Buck not to knock the guy out in that moment.Instead he just chuckled and agreed, knowing well to bide his time. 

He wasn’t entirely sure why he let Clint and Barney go after they’d all gone to the trouble of capturing them.The truth was, the Barton brothers had been just as important as the other Avengers in Ophelia’s plan.She wanted as many of the team members under her thumb as possible so the next phase could work out. 

She had been willing to sacrifice Romanoff in order to get her hands on more members of the team.She’d been happy with four, but now that he’d left her with two…

She was irate, as predicted, but there was a gleam in her eyes that left Buck unsettled.He hadn’t said much about his past with the Bartons, so as far as she knew, they’d landed him in prison like the others and he was out for revenge.

When she called in the other men, she kept her eyes on Chisholm the entire time, watching him like a hawk watches a mouse in the woods.She was toying with him, and they both knew it. 

Testing his loyalty to her and to the family he’d grown up with…

It was an easy test for him. 

Later, Chisholm was warned that Tiboldt and Duquesne wanted to pick up “… _his little girlfriend_ …” before going into disgusting details of what they wanted to do after she was in their control. 

Ophelia had been leaning against the doorway of their base, watching the exchange in amusement, her attention falling to Chisholm once more. 

Feeling ice shoot up his spine at her intense gaze, he stormed off, mumbling something about a potential lead.He drove for as long as he could handle before finding a nearly abandoned gas station at the edge of town- that fortunately still had a pay phone. 

Tossing a few quarters into the device, his fingers hovered over the keypad.

Who could he even call?It wasn’t like the Avengers had a call-back line for criminals to get in contact with. 

Before he could dial a number, his cell phone buzzed in his back pocket.It was protected number, or so said his caller ID. 

Answering it, he didn’t say a word into the line, waiting for the mystery caller to speak first, just in case the line was bugged.

“Buck Chisholm?” a female voice questioned firmly. 

He knew that voice.He’d have to be dead to not recognize it.

“Mia?” he questioned into the line. 

“We need to chat,” she stated, getting straight to the point.She sounded robotic as she spoke, as if the two of them didn’t have decades of memories together. 

“Tell me where,” he was equally as short as she listed off an address a town over. 

“Ensure that you arrive alone,” she reminded him tersely before the line went dead. 

He was reminded of her demeanor during her missions with SHIELD.Always business and always ready to jump ship if needed.He wondered why she was still helping the Avengers now that the people who mattered to her were back to safety.He had half expected her to skip town the minute Clint and Barney were freed. 

_Still_ , he mused, dropping the pay phone and returning to his car, at least he’d get to see her one last time.Even though romantic feelings for the woman had long been cast aside, he still held a tender spot for Amelia Barton.He owed it to her to at least warn her about the idiot twins and their potential plans, and maybe even let her know that Ophelia was still in the Avenger collecting business.

Halfway to the meeting point, his phone buzzed again and he answered without bothering to glance at the screen.He knew who it was.

“She set the meeting?” Ophelia asked without prompting. 

“Just as you predicted,” he replied, smirking at his reflection in the rearview mirror.“Am I sticking with the plan?”

“Exactly as we discussed,” she confirmed before hanging up.He tossed the phone into his passenger seat and let out a long sigh, relaxing into the plush of the driver’s seat. 

* * *

 


	12. Plans

* * *

**“You made _plans_ and I, I made problems**

**We were sleeping back to back**

**We know this thing wasn't built to last and**

**Good on paper, picture perfect**

**Chased the high too far, too fast**

**Picket white fence, but we paint it black**

 

**I've been hoping somebody loves you in the ways I _couldn't_**

**Somebody's taking care of- all of the mess I've made**

**Someone you don't have to change**

**I've been hoping-**

 

**_Someone will love you, let me go.”_ **

 

**-Hailee Steinfield, Alesso ( _Let Me Go_ )**

 

* * *

Amelia took one look at Chisholm and reeled back, placing a solid punch to his jaw. 

Buck stumbled backward, clutching his face and grunting in pain from the attack. 

“You got a mean punch, Mia,” he conceded, adjusting the sore part.“I missed you too.” 

She was about to charge over and show him exactly how much she’d missed him, when Bucky grabbed her by the elbow and help her back. 

“Chisholm,” he greeted cooly with a nod of his head.“I wanted to thank you for your help.”

Not very often did Bucky get to play the good cop, but he was thoroughly enjoying watching Mia losing her cool over the degenerate in front of them. 

“Where are they, Buck?” Amelia snapped, pulling her arm free from Bucky and folding them across her chest.When he didn’t reply immediately, she sharpened her tone and clarified.“Cap and Falcon..?” 

“I honestly don’t know,” he answered with a shrug.He hesitated over what he was going to say next, and for good reason. “I just wanted to… see you…?”

Bucky internally groaned and wondered for a moment if he’d accidentally done it out loud when his thoughts echoed next to him. 

“You’re such a piece of shit,” she hissed after her own outward groan at his pathetic comment.Her fingers danced over the dagger in her back pocket, and Bucky shot her a warning glare, Scott was still hiding on her shoulder after all.They didn’t need to turn an interrogation into a murder just yet. 

“I know I screwed up, but Mia-,” he paused and looked to Bucky with a narrowed gaze.“Can we speak in private?”

“No,” Bucky answered, puffing his chest and standing in front of Amelia with a sneer.“Anything you say to Amelia can be said in front of me.”

“Tiboldt and Duquesne are planning to snag you to get to Barney and Clint,” he explained quickly.“Initially, Ophelia was against the idea, but now she’s very interested in all of the Avengers’ spies.”

“Good thing I’m not a spy, nor an Avenger,” she replied lightly.“And Nat’s not going to fall for the same ruse twice.Are they really _that_ thick?”

“They found the farm house,” he eyed Bucky suspiciously as he spoke.“I don’t know where they’re getting their information but there’s a mole somewhere in SHIELD or the Avengers.”

Bucky saw Amelia pale at the information, this Chisholm hitting a nerve on the unflappable Amelia Barton.

“Could Steve or Sam have accessed that information on their behalf?” Bucky questioned Amelia, whose face was still drained of blood from Chisholm’s confession.

“You don’t understand,” she looked up to Bucky and shook her head.“That farm house shouldn’t exist _anywhere_ in federal or state databases.Our hometown was scrubbed from our employee files…” Her attention drifted to Chisholm and she let out a snarl of realization. 

Grabbing the larger man by the front of his shirt, she pinned him to the back wall of the gas station and held her dagger to his throat. 

“I- I had _nothing_ to do with this,” he contended, holding his hands up defensively.“Mia, I swear, I wouldn’t have betrayed you like that.”

While she was hissing threats to him, Bucky heard Scott through the comm confirm that he’d switched from Mia to Chisholm. 

Mia seemed to have heard this as well, and pulled away, pocketing her knife with a flourish while Chisholm smoothed down the front of his shirt. 

She looked furious, and Bucky couldn’t blame her.Between what she’d told the group earlier and what Natasha had supplied in her absence, he probably would have done the same. 

“Can you tell us anything of use?” she whirled around, her hands on her hips and a glare fixed on her face.“Or are you just here to waste my time again?”

“I told you, I’m warning you about Tiboldt and Duquesne,” he repeated.“They’re pissed Clint and Barney got free.”

“Because of you,” she reminded him hotly.“And everyone’s reactions are predictable.I happen to do this for a living, Buck.”

Bucky stilled at the name, thinking the sharp tone had been directed at him.But, watching the exes interacting, he could see that he was far away from either persons thoughts. 

“I thought you retired,” he smirked, his brows rising in surprise.“Or did your brothers convince you to go back to risking your life for the greater good.”

“Better than pumping kids with heroin,” she retorted.“Or serving _literal_ Hydra.”

“Then arrest me,” he offered, holding his arms out.Amelia eyed his wrists before stepping forward, grabbing his arms, and sending a kick straight into his ribs. 

“No, you’re still of use to us,” she sighed while he keeled over, clutching his abdomen and gasping for air.“ _For_ _now_.”

The way she spoke made Bucky think that Amelia Barton actually intended to stay put. 

“Find out what Ophelia is up to,” Bucky insisted over his partner’s shoulder.“Then we’ll see about pardons and other deals for you.”

And that was that. 

The pair climbed back into Bucky’s car and started down the highway wordlessly. 

“He’s calling Ophelia,” Scott reported through the comms. 

“ _Fucker_ ,” Amelia grumbled, folding her arms over her stomach and slouching in the passenger seat.She stared out the window after that, silent for the remainder of the journey to the second safe house. 

“So… you’re staying put?” Bucky eventually questioned, earning a snort.

“Don’t test your luck,” she merely replied, resettling into her spot and closing her eyes for some much needed sleep. 

* * *

 


	13. Ophelia pt. 2

* * *

Amelia Barton despised Buck Chisholm, or so that was the vibe Ophelia had gotten from Buck’s brief of their meeting.It was interesting, as the younger woman seemed to hold resentment toward her family as well. 

Ophelia decided to make it her mission to dig up as much as could about this elusive Sparrow that she could.Perhaps, the resentment could serve to further Ophelia’s plans. 

She dismissed the men from their new hideout, a luxury mansion in the hills of a massive New York estate.The place had been a gift from her father after she’d shown her loyalty to the Hydra cause.From security to holding cells, the older Sarkissian had spared no expense for his daughter. 

It was an investment, because all of the heads of Hydra had agreed that she was the next big thing for the organization.She’d taken the shambles of what Captain America and his friends had destroyed and built an empire.A _secret_ empire under the noses of supposedly the most capable people in the world. 

She’d fed Congress with her people, advocated for the Accords, stirred issues in Madripoor, and kept the heroes on a predictable leash, and now it was coming time for her grand reveal. 

Chisholm had confirmed for her that the heroes were now aware of her more nefarious intentions, but that didn’t phase her in the slightest.If anything, it helped expedite her plan. 

Sipping at a fresh glass of wine, Ophelia reviewed the intelligence her agents had gathered in the field.As predicted, the Avengers had jumped ship and locked all of their security channels down.Not that it mattered, Ophelia had no problems getting her hands on secrets.They came a dime a dozen.What didn’t, was the loyalty of two of the most recognizable men in the nation. 

“Ma’am, they’re ready,” Tiboldt appeared in the doorway of her study, interrupting her thoughts.She glared up in annoyance, but gestured for him to bring the men in question into the room. 

Obediently, Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson entered in well tailored suits, with calm smiles on their faces. 

“Well don’t you two look dapper,” she nodded approvingly, setting her wine glass aside and standing to get a better look of the men.This would work swimmingly, she noted, dusting a small speck off of Steve’s shoulder.“I hope you two like fundraisers.Tiboldt, get them to the car.I’ll be downstairs in a moment.”

The former-carnie ushered the men out and Ophelia was left grinning over her desk.Things were moving along perfectly. 

The event went as smoothly as could be expected.Steve and Sam played their parts perfectly, smiling at cameras and speaking highly of the work the Sarkissian’s were doing.She had half expected the Avengers to crash the event, but surprisingly, no one from the team was present. 

Which meant they were planning something, and that meant Ophelia needed to stay ten steps ahead of them.Moving through the crowd, she leaned over to Rogers and pressed a kiss to his cheek much to the surprise of the press surrounding them. 

She played into the frenzy, blushing like she’d been caught by surprise in the intimate exchange. 

The press ate it up and Ophelia was finally taking her place at the top of the social hierarchy.

* * *

Bucky and Clint had been assigned to stake out the charity gala and intervene if Ophelia did anything too extreme to the two brain-washed Avengers.

“She’s certainly not hiding them from us,” Clint muttered, passing Bucky his binoculars.The pair had found a rooftop across from the event center that provided ample opportunities for visual monitoring via the massive windows surrounding the space. 

“Did she jus kiss Steve?” Bucky questioned, furrowing his brow.“She’s drugging them and having Tiboldt do his dirty work…”

“They can handle it,” Clint assured him briskly.“It’s really not that bad.They’re mentally aware of what’s going on, they just can’t do anything about it physically.”

“Amelia said she’d never been controlled by Tiboldt, have you?” Bucky frowned at the archer’s analysis of the situation. 

Clint sighed, leaning back from the ledge. 

“She’s _embarrassed_ ,” he confided softly.“And you say a word of this to her, I will ruin your life.”

Bucky chuckled at the weak threat, though he had no indication of betraying any of the Bartons’ trust, he just wanted to get to the bottom of what kind of person Amelia was. 

“She used to be terrified of heights, but Tiboldt needed a fresh, young, acrobat to draw in crowds,” he shook his head in frustration.“I didn’t realize it until we were in too deep, and I couldn’t stop it.Every night she’d panic, and be forced to climb stories above the audience.When I found out, I did everything I could to get _all_ of us out of there.”

Bucky took in the story with disgust.He’d already hated the bastards for what they’d done to Natasha, but adding in these supplemental stories from the Bartons had turn that disgust and hatred into true resentment. 

“When Loki attacked, it was the first time I’d experienced what she’d gone through,” he continued with a shudder.“I knew that Tiboldt had her and Chisholm working odd jobs on the side, and I never asked her what they were about… I don’t know if I ever want to know.I can’t imagine the guilt she could be living with.”

Clint was a good brother, Bucky realized.He cared about both of his siblings, no matter what dumb decisions they made.It probably had a lot to do with losing their parents so young, and they only had each other. 

Some bonds are impossible to break, no matter the stress on the knot. 

“She’s alive and in one piece,” Bucky clapped a hand on Clint’s shoulder to reassure him.“You did the best you could with a terrible situation.”

“You’re right,” Clint agreed after a pause to digest what his friend had supplied.“I’m also lucky you’ve been around since she’d gotten back to town.Lord knows what could have happened with Ophelia.Amelia is all action and no thought.”

“Sounds like a few people I know,” Bucky snorted, nodding back toward the building.“Looks like they’re finally leaving.”

“Ready to trail?” Clint questioned, pocketing their supplies.The men hurried toward their transportation, a discreet SUV in brown.“I hate this thing.”

“I think it really brightens your personality,” Bucky slid into the passenger seat while Clint pealed off. 

“You think my personality is _shit colored_?Wow, I’m glad I opened my heart to you, Barnes.”

* * *

 


	14. Fury

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short short short... but I've got a LONG chapter 15 that I'm about to post! Please let me know what you're thinking of the story.! 
> 
> Thank you all for reading!!

* * *

The second safe house was much larger than the first.Amelia later found out that it had been supplied by SHIELD as one of their newer locations, a place that would be unknown to both Steve and Sam. 

Arriving at the new location, Amelia immediately was introduced to a very young boy and his aunt before being pulled away to one of the conference rooms where none other than Nick Fury stood waiting. 

“Long time no see,” he greeted when the door closed behind her. 

“I was hoping it’d be longer,” she replied dryly, dropping down into one of the conference chairs.“Did you want a briefing?I’m sure someone has the spark notes somewhere…” 

He shook his head, crossing the room to sit on the edge of the table, closer to Amelia. 

“Clint’s happy to see you stayed around,” he noted.“Natasha too.She practically beamed when she alerted me that you and Barnes _both_ were enroute.”

Amelia rolled her eyes, settling her attention to the fake wood covering of the table rather than at her former boss.

“I can hardly imagine Natasha beaming,” she commented.“Is there something you needed from me?Or just wanted to catch up?”

“I’m well aware of what you’ve been up to,” he stood back up, turning his back to her with his hands clasped.“I heard the meeting with Chisholm was productive.”

“Nick, with all due respect, can you please get to the point?” she asked, finally looking up to meet his eye line. 

“Sarkissian is a serious threat, more so than Stark or any of you initially realized,” he pulled a small clicker out of his pocket and aimed it toward the ceiling. 

The lights in the room dimmed and a holographic projection emerged from the center of the table, revealing a handful of Hydra operatives.It zoomed in on a photograph of Ophelia’s father.

“From what our intelligence has gathered, the Sarkissian family has been thick with Hydra since the second World War.They’ve garnered an impressive stake in the organization and have been rewarded fabulously,” he pulled an image of the Sarkissian chemicals logo and quirked a brow toward Amelia.“Wanna guess what they helped supply to Hydra?”

Amelia watched the spinning logo a moment and shrugged, honestly stumped. 

“Chemical weapons?” she guessed, but realized she was wrong when the slid shifted to an image of a frozen Bucky Barnes. 

“Cryogenic gases,” Fury answered firmly.“And of course, other body altering chemicals for their various super soldier programs.And now we know a significant number of military and private sector big-wigs were Hydra, it’s no wonder where they got their money.”

Amelia was still trying to process this particular piece of information when Fury cleared his throat. 

“Given your history with both Chisholm, and now Ophelia, I’m interested in recruiting you for a mission,” he paused, watching for a reaction from the flippant former agent.

Amelia frowned, of course now that she’d gotten to know Bucky and some of the Avengers, this was hitting a little close to home, especially given what the Sarkissian’s did on their part.But, there was that little voice in the back of her mind that voiced her weaknesses, that reminded her that she hadn’t been in the field in some time, that she was too fragile to even try. 

“Look, Chisholm did you dirty, but you were a hell of a spy, you and your brother,” Fury stared her down.“Hell, you and Romanoff were like poetry in the field and it almost brings a tear to my eye to think that you’ll never fight again.”

“I don’t know if I have that spark anymore,” she confessed, her body deflating at the thought. 

“You got intel off Ophelia less than 24-hours after being contacted by Clint about Natasha being compromised, and you nearly beat the shit out of your ex less than an hour ago.You have that spark, but you keep smothering it.You’re better than your past, and this is your chance to prove it.”

She weighed his words carefully.She enjoyed being in the field, she’d be lying if she said otherwise, but this wasn’t her battle…She stared at the image of Barnes, frozen in cryogenic sleep.It wasn’t her fight… _was_ it? 

“ _If_ I agree,” she began, sitting up a speaking slowly, deliberately, to her former boss.“What would this mission entail?”

Fury grinned, closing the projection and grabbing a file from a nearby table.He slid it toward her and began to speak.

“Given your rocky relationship with all of the former members of the Ring Brothers Circus gang and members of the Avengers, you don’t want to be apart of any of these organizations,” he explained with a nod toward the file. 

Amelia opened it and found a photograph of Chisholm, her, and all of her brothers from years back at the circus. 

“ _So_ much betrayal and pain,” he smirked at her intrigued reaction and flipped the page, setting the scene completely.“You and Natasha will have a disagreement at one of Ophelia’s charity events in a week’s time.That’ll give us time to full debrief Lang and get a full outlook on the situation.My prediction is that Ophelia is growing tired of your former gang’s incompetence and will be looking for inside help, and that’s where you come in.”

“You want me to move in on Ophelia’s organization?She knows I wanted to save Natasha, why would I flip so quickly?”

“That’s for you to figure out,” he closed the file.“All the information we have on Sarkissian is in there, you have a week.”

“I didn’t agree yet,” she began to protest, but he just stared at her until she grumbled.“Fine.Yes, I’m in.Activate payroll again.Am I still technically Delta Strike?”

“No Amelia, you’re an Avenger now.”

* * *

 


	15. Starlight

* * *

Amelia had found herself on the roof of the safe house, nursing a bottle of whiskey she’d snagged from Tony’s room.The night was clear and given how far away from civilization they were, there was hardly any light pollution.It was gorgeous and the starlight almost reminded Amelia of home.

Which home, she wasn’t sure.

“I figured you’d stolen it,” Tony appeared at Amelia’s side, dropping down next to her and nodding toward the bottle.“Care to share?Or are we having a solo pity party?”

She rolled her eyes, pushing the bottle toward her old friend and leaning back to take in the enormity of the sky. 

“You know what’s weird?I was typing up a payroll record for Fury when I noticed your name right under Clint’s,” he took a swallow from the bottle and eyed her teasingly.“Didn’t realize you became an Avenger without me even knowing, little bird.”

She groaned, shaking her head and reaching for the whiskey again.Taking a long drink, she set the bottle aside and looked to him. 

“I don’t know if this is a mistake or not,” she confessed.“I made a bad call with Buck five years ago and it nearly cost Clint his life and Barney his hand.I was lucky Nat was there to cover my ass or…”

She fell quiet, pondering the what-ifs from that fateful night. 

“I’d gotten emotionally invested in a mission, and I can’t risk that again,” she murmured. 

“You weren’t emotionally invested in me?” Tony questioned with mock hurt on his face.“You’ve broken my heart, Mia.”

“Ha ha,” she replied dryly.“You’re the only target I’ve ever slept with, did you know that?”

That seemed to have caught Tony by surprise, his brows raising in curiosity. 

“Well, you have to say more than that,” he joked.“Why me?If I remember correctly, Nat drugged the hell out of me afterwards.Could have just skipped the middle man.”

Amelia shrugged, sipping at the whiskey and passing it to the billionaire. 

“You seemed like a good man,” she admitted.“You were trying to work things out for yourself and… I don’t know, maybe I was too.Believe it or not, against Natasha’s warnings, I _trusted_ you.”

He scoffed, finishing off the drink and tossing the bottle aside. 

“That’s a first,” he muttered.“I’m still not sure if Natasha trusts me at this point.”

“You’re kidding right?I think she trusts you more than Clint,” Amelia nudged him in the shoulder.“My gut was right, you’re a good person Tony.Don’t forget that.You always have been.”

He sat silently for a few minutes, staring up at the stars above them. 

“You’re making me sentimental,” he complained, eyeing the empty bottle in annoyance.“I need more whiskey, you up for another round?” 

Already feeling the buzz from the first bottle, she grinned. 

“Do you even need to ask?”

He stood up, offering a hand to the newest Avenger recruit.She stumbled, falling into his chest, thankfully, Tony caught her by the waist without too much trouble. 

“Just like Paris,” she joked, laughing lightly.He watched her pull away, leading the way toward the rooftop door of the safe house.“Let’s get sloppy and watch the sunrise, how’s that sound?”

He cleared his throat, plastering a smile on his features.

“That sounds amazing, lead the way.”

* * *

Amelia’s head was spinning, and she was laughing and hugging and cracking jokes with Natasha when Bucky and Clint returned from their recon mission. 

“Did we miss a party?” Clint questioned, looking absolutely offended that he hadn’t gotten an invitation to Amelia’s impromptu recruitment party. 

“Clint!” she jumped up, throwing her arms around her older brother.“I’m an _Avenger_ now.”

She hiccuped through the last part, earning a snicker from the archer while he moved to settle her on the more stable sofa. 

“Really?” Bucky looked genuinely surprised at the news.“When did _that_ happen?”

“Fury peer pressured me into it,” she sighed dramatically, leaning her head over the back of the sofa to get a better look at him.“And Tony promised me a new suit.”

“Can’t have you running around with a SHIELD logo and cramping our style,” Tony added with a grin over his glass of scotch.“You sticking with Sparrow?”

Amelia paused, weighing the decision briefly before grinning. 

“Hell yeah,” she decided firmly.She began detailing what she wanted in her suit, with Natasha occasionally jumping in with suggestions, the trio immersed deeply in their drunken conversation. 

“Is this the best idea?” Bucky questioned Clint while he prepared a drink from himself.“It sounds like Fury tricked her into joining and that just…”

Clint reached into Tony’s stash and pulled out a flask of Asgardian mead, pouring a decent amount into Bucky’s cup. 

“Amelia doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to do,” he stated confidently.“Trust me.She’s as stubborn as a bull when she sets her mind to something.”

“Like leaving after bringing Natasha home?” Bucky sniffed the glass and made a face, there was a lot of alcohol in the drink. 

“She decided to stay, you should be happy,” Clint elbowed him with a grin.“I know you weren’t just interested in those little details for the mission…” 

Bucky froze, caught off guard by the comment his friend had made.That certainly was not the case.He needed to know of any potential complications, and since Amelia was the newest variable, that made her his number one priority. 

“Whatever you say,” the assassin snorted, dropping in between Amelia and Tony, sending a pointed look toward Clint when the archer wiggled his brows suggestively.Bucky took a long swallow of his drink, actually appreciated the burn as the mead went down and listened to Amelia and Tony shouting back and forth over some kind of folk music someone had started playing over the speakers.

“I’m just saying, I’m better than you,” Amelia threw her hands up to indicate that was the end of the argument. 

“I can guarantee I can gather more intel than you can,” Tony rolled his eyes.“You don’t even use bugs!How can you just rely on memory?It’s unreliable.”

Amelia leaned in, grinning from ear to ear. 

“Because I’m a genius, Stark,” she insisted.“I know it’s hard to kneel to those superior to you, but it’s true.”

“Whatever you say, _bird_ ,” he scoffed, setting his empty glass aside.“What’s my favorite food?”

“Genre or specific dish?” she questioned, narrowing her eyes.

“Food doesn’t have genres,” Tony shot back.“But specific dish.”

“Trick question, you like three things,” she shot back.“Swedish meatballs, sushi, and Rhodes’ prime rib sandwiches.”

Tony blinked at her. 

“How in god’s name do you remember that?”

“On account of my big brain, Stark,” Amelia finished another beer and added it to a hefty stack.

“I don’t think you’re gonna win this one, Stark,” Bucky warned with a chuckle.“She might start revealing some deep secrets, I’d quit before you’re in too deep.”

Tony grumbled his agreement with the assassin and fell back into his chair, holding an arm over his eyes. 

“I’m getting too old for this,” he groaned.

“Title of your sex tape,” Clint jumped in, earning a high five from Amelia.

“Go easy on him, he’s doing his best,” Natasha chided with a playful grin.

“Title of _Clint’s_ sex tape,” Amelia snickered.

Natasha’s brows shot up at the archer who began to sputter through a series of protests before falling quiet. 

“I’m going to bed,” Tony announced after a song had finished, filling the room with silence.

“No, you’re supposed to stay up until sunrise,” Amelia jumped on his comment quickly.“You promised.”

“Ugh,” he whined.“That’s like, two hours from now.”

“You agreed to getting sloppy and watching the sun rise,” she repeated, glaring at him.“It’s _my_ initiation party…”

“You’re not nearly innocent enough to use those puppy eyes,” Tony snapped, throwing a crumpled napkin at the spy.“And if you can last, fine.But I’m getting a round of waters for everyone.”

“Killjoy!” Amelia shouted after him as he disappeared into the kitchen.She settled into the couch, humming in contentment when a soothing folk song began to fill the room. 

“You and Stark are pretty close, huh?” Bucky asked quietly, trying not to interrupt the heated conversation between Natasha and Clint.Amelia perked up, eyeing him with a smirk.

“Jealous?” she challenged.

“What?No,” he laughed.“Just interesting that your name never came up before all of this.”

“Clint and Nat knew better, Barney is a felon, and Tony is a loyal friend,” she sighed.“I don’t like things being shared with strangers.I’m sure you understand.”

Bucky did understand.With his past, he hated whenever it was mentioned during missions against Hydra or when a historic event had been altered by his actions. 

“How did you and Tony meet?” he continued, sipping at his drink casually.It was genuine interest he had, given the vague details he’d gathered over the last few days. 

She studied him with a suspicious glance before beginning her story.

“A while back, Natasha and I had been assigned by SHIELD to determine his eligibility for the Avengers Initiative.She had a more, integrated role in the mission, while I provided back-up support as an executive assistant under Pepper.Eventually, our true motivations came up and that’s that.Natasha stayed around, and I kept in the field with Clint.”

“Delta Strike?” Bucky guessed, earning a nod from her. 

“Yep, with… Rumlow, Rollins, and a few others,” she recalled softly.“I think they all mostly ended up being Hydra after the breach.Go figure.”

“You were around for that?” Bucky questioned in surprise. 

“Hell yeah I was,” she sat up, laughing.“I was on desk duty since Cap had joined, but I was around.Ended up being a hell of a nightmare when the Triskelion went down.”

“Sorry about that,” Bucky gave her a sheepish grin. 

“I obviously hold you personally accountable for all of it, and definitely not the idiot super soldier who decided to crash the helicarriers into the building,” Amelia shoved him in the arm playfully, falling back into the couch, her attention falling to Natasha and Clint. 

“ _They’re_ the idiots,” Tony supplied, leaning over her shoulder and passing her a glass of water.“Like, they just need to bang already.The tension is getting uncomfortable.”

Amelia nearly choked on her water at the comment, earning a grin from Tony as he passed Bucky his water and settled in. 

“You know after this water I’m about to finish your bottle of scotch,” Amelia began to boast, watching Tony for a reaction.

“Like hell you are, I’m pretty sure you’re too drunk to walk,” he grabbed the bottle, tucking it away.

“Uh oh,” Clint and Natasha were pulled into the conversation just as Amelia set aside her water glass. 

“Is that a challenge, Stark?” she quirked a brow, daring him to proceed with his commentary. 

“Yes, yes it is,” he stood up, grabbing the bottle and moving it to the edge of the room.“If you want it, get it.”He folded his arms over his chest mockingly, waiting for the youngest Barton’s next move.

“ _Fine_ ,” she stretched her arms over her chest and stood up, wobbling slightly. 

“Stark, if she breaks her neck, this is your fault,” Natasha shot to the smug billionaire.

“She’s not going make it past the coffee table,” he continued.“She’ll be fine.There’s a rug to soften a fall.”

“No, Tony, you don’t understand-,” Clint began to protest before Amelia leapt up on the coffee table with her hands, walking toward Clint and Natasha’s end of the couch with her palms.She propelled herself over them like a gymnast going for her gold medal rather than a bottle of scotch and landed carefully on her feet in front of an awestruck Tony.

“I’ll be taking this,” she snatched the bottle.“I’m going to vomit profusely and then I’ll be back.” 

She gave a hiccup, tilting the bottle in Tony’s direction with a laugh before disappearing into the communal bathroom. 

* * *

A little over an hour later, Natasha and Clint were sleeping on one another’s shoulders and Tony was unconscious from the rowdy drinking game Amelia had insisted upon. 

“Ugh, I feel terrible,” she mumbled after setting aside her water glass and sinking next to Bucky. 

“Well, I’m pretty sure you just drank your weight in pure liquor,” he pointed out.

“And it didn’t help,” she complained through a grumble.“Why’d my uncle drink this shit?”

The pair sat quietly, the music volume much lower now that the majority of the house was asleep. 

“I love this song,” she closed her eyes, humming along with a slower song that passed through the room.“My mom used to listen to it all of the time.She had this cassette she’d play…”

She stopped mid sentence, catching herself from sharing any more personal details. 

Bucky caught the abrupt change in mood and maybe it was the mead, but he felt compelled to say something.

“You know, you’re allowed to let your walls down sometimes,” he stated, turning his head to face her. 

“You’re one to talk,” she retorted.“What’s your favorite color?”

“Easy, _blue_ ,” he replied.“What’s your favorite memory?”

“That’s not a fair one, I asked an easy question,” she whined, her grey eyes snapping open. 

“I don’t make the rules,” he shrugged off her anger, a smile tugging at the edge of his mouth.“Come on… share something that isn’t tainted by awful.”

“We used to go to the southern coast for vacations each summer,” she hummed, closing her eyes again at the memory.“My mom’s cousin had a summer house we borrowed for a week.It was the only time all of us were together and happy.Your turn.Happiest memory?”

“Steve and I would go to Coney Island whenever we had a little extra change in our pockets,” Bucky stated, his expression lightening at the memories.“We always had to cheat the height charts by stuffing newspapers in his shoes.”

“Favorite movie?”

“ _The Matrix_ ,” he immediately replied.“Yours?”

“I honestly was expecting something older,” she confessed with a laugh.“Like _Casablanca_ or _Rebecca_.”

“They’re good, but modern movies are amazing,” he insisted.“The special effects are things we only dreamed of when I was a kid.You can’t imagine how awesome it is jumping from _Wizard of Oz_ to _Harry Potter_.” 

“That’s mine,” Amelia pointed out, covering her mouth when another hiccup escaped. 

“ _Harry Potter_?”

“No, _Wizard of O_ z,” she smiled wistfully.“Going to a new, magical world after growing up on a farm, it was fun to pretend whenever tornadoes swept through.”

It was a more insightful thought than Bucky had been expecting and the soldier was at a loss for words. 

“I saw it when it came out,” he blurted out, earning a wide-eyed look from his companion.“I took Steve and my sister, Rebecca, to see it.”

“Holy smokes,” she murmured in awe.“I forgot that you’re just an old biddy.”

“I’m a grumpy old man, get it right,” he teased back. 

“Not with _those_ abs,” she gave him a full sweep of her eyes.“You’re like what, twenty-something biologically?”

“Something like that,” he replied with a grunt.It was sensitive subject, one that he usually tried to avoid since it went in such a predictable-

“You’re still just a kid,” she smiled to herself, proud of her deductive abilities.“We’re all just kids.”

That had taken Bucky out of left field.

“Don’t tell Steve that, he’s very proud of being a centurion,” Bucky supplied. 

“I’m ain’t scared of no super soldier,” she muttered, her eyes flickering shut.“He’s too nice.You both are.I can’t believe you put a bathrobe on me…”

She fell quiet after that, her breathing steadying under she fell over onto his shoulder, snoring softly. 

She looked at peace for the first time since Bucky had met her.Finally, the burdens of the waking world were gone, even if just for a moment. 

And she’d felt comfortable enough to fall asleep practically on top of him, which made his heart sing. 

Outside, the moon was beginning to sink and the stars were fading away and Bucky finally resigned himself to getting a little sleep, sinking deeper into the couch and snuggling close with his newest teammate.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm half tempted to do a flashback smut chapter of Tony/Amelia? But like, I dunno if there's a good reason aside from me being a huge creep, lol.
> 
> I'm just a huge sucker for Tony smut. 
> 
> Let me know your thoughts!


	16. Morning pt. 2

* * *

Amelia woke up with something warm curled around her back.Given how much her head ached and the hangover chills, this wasn’t something she particularly minded.

Nestling closer into the warm, she heard a satisfied sigh by her ear that made her freeze. 

It wasn’t something, but rather _someone_ , who was wrapped around her. 

She prayed that she hadn’t done something stupid, and didn’t a mental check of all of her limbs, relaxing significantly when she realized her pants were still on. 

“Stop _squirming_ , it’s too early,” the voice mumbled, pulling her in closer still and humming in contentment.

She knew _that_ voice.

Pulling herself out of Bucky’s grasp, she underestimated the size of the couch and hit the ground with a thud.

“ _Shit_ ,” she hissed, rubbing at her head that had hit the floor first.The last thing she needed was _another_ concussion. 

Bucky had shifted, a bemused expression on his sleepy face.

“You ok?” he questioned, offering a hand to help her up.Amelia took it gratefully, pulling herself back to her feet. 

“Don’t mind me, go ahead back to sleep,” she gestured to where Clint and Natasha were still squished together.“Looks like we’re taking a day off.”

Bucky’s entire demeanor shifted at the joke.

“Not until we have Steve back,” he stated firmly, standing up and pressing down the wrinkles in his shirt.“Sorry about the…” he gestured vaguely where they’d been sitting.

“The _snuggles_?” she guessed, biting back a snicker.“It’s ok, you’re pretty cozy, Barnes.”

“About time you two got up,” Tony appeared in the room with two cups of coffee, offering one to Amelia and snubbing Barnes.He reached down and turned on the television, turning the channel to a national news segment. 

Steve Rogers’ smile filled the screen.He thanked the host for letting him join the conversation about a controversial bill in Congress. 

“I think Senator Sarkissian has a lot of solid points, there are a number of limitations that should be imposed on those with enhanced abilities,” he explained, earning a collective groan from the room that finally stirred Nat and Clint.

“What’d we miss?” the archer asked sleepily, wiping at his eyes. 

“Steve’s a poster boy for Hydra’s nefarious plots,” Tony caught the spies up.“The interview with Sam was worse, he was actively hitting on the blonde from Fox News.”

“Which one?” Natasha questioned with a yawn.

“ _All_ of them,” Tony deadpanned, sipping at his drink.“We need to get to work.Amelia, Barnes, clean yourselves up and meet me in the conference room.We need to discuss your mission.”

Mia and Bucky exchanged uneasy glances before they parted their separate ways.On her way to her room, Natasha caught up with her friend, a sly smile threatening to spill over.

“What was that?” she pressed, catching Amelia by the arm in the hallway. 

“What was what?You spooning my brother?Yeah, _super_ _weird_ ,” she deflected the question and continued walking toward the guest room. 

“You and _Barnes_ ,” Natasha clarified sharply.“Why do you keep getting missions together?Fury told me you were going to infiltrate Ophelia _alone_.”

“I’m just as confused as you are,” Amelia admitted, draining the remainder of her coffee and sighing.“Last I heard was the same thing you did.Maybe we just work well together?”

“You don’t well with anyone but _me_ ,” Natasha clicked her tongue and narrowed her eyes.“You’re too damn stubborn, _bоробей.”_

Amelia didn’t have a good rebuttal to her friend’s argument, since it was true.Even with Clint, she would get testy in the field, Natasha was the only one who she seemed to work well with.The redhead just _got_ her and it made decisions on the fly much easier when she didn’t need to explain her logic. 

“He went with you to talk to Chisholm too,” Natasha commented, pausing in thought, hoping that Amelia would pick up on the subtle hint. 

Amelia didn’t give her that benefit.

“I wasn’t planning on coming back,” Amelia confessed.“He just needed to make sure the mission was completed.”

Natasha scowled, grabbing Amelia by the ear, the blonde starting trying to pull away, swearing in multiple languages at the pain.

“Were you going to tell me you were leaving?” Natasha lectured before releasing her friend.“But you told Barnes… _Interesting_.”

“It’s not _interesting_ , he just _guessed_ ,” Amelia held her ear, taking a step away from Natasha.“Now, I need to get changed because I smell like a bar bathroom.We can chat later.”

“We will,” Natasha agreed, turning on her heel toward her room. 

Amelia was left in the hall with a sore ear, an empty mug, and a hangover.It wasn’t ideal. 

“Aww… _alcohol_ ,” she mumbled to herself, opening the untouched bedroom and finding an assortment of clothes in her size scattered across the bed.At least being an Avenger came with a few perks.

* * *

“We need to move faster than a week,” Tony announced, passing Amelia and Bucky tablets.“If she’s going national with those two, I don’t want to know the mess she’d planning for the rest of us.”

“When should I infiltrate?” Amelia questioned, skimming through the mission briefing and nodding at the details. 

“ _Tonight_ ,” Tony stated, watching her for a reaction.“Think you can handle that?”

“Sure, it’ll be fun,” she muttered, pausing over an image of a smiling Ophelia.“As far as we know, Chisholm and the village idiots are still involved, right?”

“They are,” Tony confirmed, earning a disgruntled noise from Bucky.“Anything you want to share with the class, Barnes?”

“Tiboldt is dangerous… what if we lose control of the situation?” he asked, glancing between Amelia and Tony.“He could have upgraded his lens, we just don’t know.”

“Let me worry about that,” Amelia insisted, offering a comforting smile in his direction.“Between him and Ophelia, I doubt I’m going to get a lot of say in things, but if I can gain her trust quickly… we should be fine.”

“Which brings me to Barnes,” Tony shifted his attention to the other spy.“You’re tailing Amelia.Every second of everyday, you will know exactly where she is.If she’s compromised, you pull her and the others out.”

“What about Natasha?She knows Mia’s behaviors more intimately,” he began to argue, but Tony shook his head. 

“We already know that she can be compromised by Tiboldt,” he clarified sharply.“Clint and Barney during their briefing said that once someone has been under mind control, it’s hard to fall susceptible to Tiboldt’s tricks.”

“Then why not her brothers?”

“I mean, if you don’t want to Bucky, no one’s holding a gun to your head,” Amelia chuckled, a nervous twinge to her voice.

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t, I’m simply curious as to why me?”

“You’re an experienced assassin, and Clint and Barney are handling a different part of this mission,” Tony sighed.“Read over your dossiers, and be ready for a fundraiser dinner by 8pm.”

Amelia scooped up her tablet and slipped out before Bucky had a chance to stand up.He didn’t even notice the knowing look Tony gave him before Bucky was after Amelia.

He caught her by the shoulder and she whirled around, her eyes wide in surprise.She was jumpy. 

“I know Tiboldt has manipulated you before,” he spoke quickly.“You don’t have to do this.”

“I think I do,” she forced another smile.“I want to help get your friends back.”

“You said it yourself, we’re perfectly capable of doing that ourselves,” he studied her over, searching for a break in that mask of hers.“Why the change of heart?”

She seemed at a loss for words, struggling to come up with a clear answer, a first, he realized, for the chatty spy.

“Were you briefed on the history of the Sarkissian family’s dealings with Hydra?” she finally asked, meeting his gaze. 

“Not yet,” he replied slowly.“Fury was supposed to meet Natasha and I for a briefing when he got to town tomorrow, but I guess that’s postponed.”

She hummed at his response.

“Then, don’t worry about it,” she assured him, reaching for his arm and giving it a comforting pat.“I’m in this 100 percent, and nothing will change my mind.”

She left on that note, leaving a dumbfounded Bucky standing the hallway, watching after her. 

“You have a crush,” Natasha sang over his shoulder.Bucky shrugged her off of him and scowled.

“She’s as stupid brave as Rogers and I swear to god, she’s going to get herself killed,” he grumbled, running a frustrated hand through his hair. 

“I think you secretly like it,” Nat teased, poking him in the chest.“You have this compulsive need to protect people, and finally something is spicing it up.”

“So you agree, she’s an idiot?” he questioned the redhead with raised brows.Natasha laughed, shaking her head.

“No, she’s incredibly capable,” she replied.“But it’s fun watching you in a tizzy.It’s been ten days and you haven’t even attempted to make a move, I thought you were the ladies’ man?”

It wasn’t that Bucky and Sam had an ongoing bet on how many SHIELD interns they could make swoon, but Natasha had a point.He’d been so focused on what Amelia Barton was going to do next, he hadn’t even considered thinking of her in a romantic way. 

“Careful, Barnes, someone might see you _blush_ ,” Natasha commented before passing by with a smirk.

_Hadn’t he?_

_Wonderful_ , he thought to himself, fuming himself to his assigned room and dropping face first on his bed with a grunt.Now he was even more concerned about Amelia returning from this mission in one piece.

Was this part of their plan?Trick him into falling for the frustrating Barton girl so he played his part _extra_ well?

There was a soft knock at his door.

“ _Comein-_ ,” he shouted through his pillow, not bothering to look up.He figured it was Natasha with more teasing or Tony with updates on the mission.He was surprised when he felt the edge of his bed sink and he spied a familiar head of blonde hair. 

“Sorry,” she began, looking sheepishly around the room.“I can actually- I can come back later…”She stood up, but Bucky caught her by the wrist and pulled her back down. 

“What is it?” he rolled on his side.Her energy was off, something was wrong. 

“I-,” she sighed, staring down at the floor and avoiding eye contact with him.“You’re _right_.I’m actually really nervous about all of this and I’m scared that I’ll mess something up or get someone hurt.”

She looked smaller than Bucky had ever seen her.He sat up, pulling himself next to her before he began to speak.

“You cover your bases, and you are _irritatingly_ talented at catching nuances that most people ignore,” he said with a light chuckle.“No matter what happens, it’s going to go a lot smoother than anything else we would have been able to come up with.”

“I’m the first line of extraction,” she looked up at him miserably.“No one said that.It was just tucked casually in the dossier.”

Bucky hadn’t seen that note either and he shrugged as she spoke. 

“Ok, then you get the boys out,” he declared.“I’ll be waiting outside and we’ll arrest Ophelia and her goons.”

“You make it sound so simple,” she snorted through a laugh. 

“You’re the one making it more difficult,” he retorted.“Get out of your head and trust your gut.Is this what you want to do?”

She shifted before groaning with a smile creeping through. 

“ _Yes_ …” she rolled her eyes.“Stupid.Everything’s stupid. _Ugh_.”

She picked up a folder that had been sitting at her side and shoved it toward him.

“Here’s the briefing on the Sarkissian connection with Hydra,” she explained.“The mission specs didn’t mention it, but I think you should look it over.”

He thumbed through the file, basic stuff that he wasn’t very surprised to see. 

That was, until he stopped on a full page photograph of him in cryo suspension. 

He looked up, a question on the tip of his tongue for Amelia, but she’d slipped out of the room noiselessly. 

_Nothing will change my mind._

* * *

 


	17. Barton

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I super recommend listening to "Gone Too Soon" by Sarah Jarosz during the latter part of this chapter <3 
> 
>  
> 
> Warning: Some light smut at the end of the chapter >>
> 
> Enjoy!

* * *

“Do you know what I told Clint when you were born?” Barney found Amelia stirring her coffee aimlessly in the kitchen later that day.“I said, this kid is gonna be a pain in the ass for us.”

“Weren’t you like, _thirteen_?” she snickered. 

“I was,” he nodded, grabbing an orange from the communal bowl and picking at the skin.“Go figure, I was the pain in the ass over the years.”

He caught her looking at the scar on his hand and held it up to the light.

“Honestly, I’m lucky this is the worst I got,” he commented, biting into the center of his orange.“There was a time in Madripoor that some gun smugglers had me trussed up with the cement blocks tied to my feet and _everything_.I thought ‘ _This is it for ol’ Barney’_.I’m lucky my punk brother saved my ass from drowning at the last second.”

She grinned wickedly over the edge of her mug.The sight lightened Barney’s mood considerably.It’d been so long since he’d seen her smile like that. 

“He probably waited on purpose,” she guessed, still stirring at her drink.“I know I would have.”

He reached over and mussed up her neat ponytail, earning a yelp of frustration from her. 

“You two are terrible,” he whined, plopping another piece of fruit in his mouth.“Though, you’ve saved my life a few times over… Guess we’re all even.”

“I’m a saint,” she protested, her expression shifting to offense.“Never done wrong a day in my life, _obviously_.”

“Um, _Amelia_ ,” he cleared his throat, his face falling serious while he held his hand up.“Which one of us is _holey_?”

“God, that’s such a terrible joke,” she threw crumpled napkin at him.“But, thank you.”

They sat in a peaceful quiet for a few minutes while he finished his snack. 

“Tiboldt’s got a new set of specs,” he supplied.“They’re powerful enough to take down Rogers and Wilson, so be careful.As much as it pains me to say this, try to stick to Chisholm in the beginning.”

He pressed a hand on her shoulder, smiling fondly at his younger sister before leaving the room for his own mission briefing with his FBI handler. 

Amelia could handle this.He knew it in his soul, even if she doubted herself, he had watched her face off with death itself and laugh as she emerged victorious. 

* * *

Clint was adjusting some of his arrows in the living area when he saw Natasha enter the room. 

“Long time no see,” he joked, holding a shaft out to examine how straight it was.“Get bored snooping around everyone’s personal lives?”

She slid onto the sofa next to him, picking up an arrow tip and poking the point. 

“Careful with those, they’re dipped in venom,” he warned, tossing the arrow he’d been working on aside.She raised a brow and set the tip down, watching while he picked up another arrow and added one of the venom arrowheads to the end. 

“You going back in the field again?” she asked when he placed it with a growing stack of completed arrows next to his quiver.

“Yep,” he nodded, his focus fixed on a broken edge on one of the shafts.“Barney and I are headed out tomorrow morning to DC.”

“Checking out Senator Sarkissian?” she guessed, earning an affirmative grunt from her companion.“Wish I could tag along.”

“I hear you’re helping Barnes after Mia confirms extraction for Steve and Sam,” he commented, picking up another arrowhead. 

“That’s _forever_ from now,” she practically whined.“Who am I supposed to snoop on if you’re all off site?”She grinned mischievously when he glanced up at her. 

“I’m sure you’ll know all of Parker’s business by the time I’m back,” he laughed.

“He has a crush on one of his classmates,” she leaned back against the sofa, pulling her leg up and making herself comfortable.“MJ, I think her name is…”

Clint stopped what he was doing and looked up at his partner with a bemused grin. 

“You really do snoop on everyone,” he laughed. 

“I know _everyone’s_ secrets,” she confirmed softly. 

“Everyone’s?” he challenged, leaning toward her mockingly. 

She grabbed his chin and pressed a kiss against him.Startled at first, he responded in kind by pulling her in closer, their tongues moving to taste one another in an almost desperate frenzy.

She pulled away first, smirking at him before hopping up.

“ _Everyone’s_ ,” she repeated, signaling him to follow her. 

Clint shoved aside his equipment, and nearly tripped while he hurried after her.   Across the room, Tony and Amelia had entered, frozen at the sight of teh spies kissing before finally looking to one another with raised eyebrows.

“ _About time_ ,” he muttered with Amelia nodding in curt agreement, before they continued on their way to the armory.

* * *

“You wouldn't believe it,” Amelia lifted up the hem of her dress and stashed a small pistol in a hidden holster on her hip.“They finally stopped being stupid.”

Bucky was adjusting his suit coat in the armory, making sure that his weapons were as inconspicuous as possible.He caught Amelia’s eye in his reflection and rolled his eyes.

“Took them long enough,” he agreed, fidgeting with his bow tie to distract himself.  She looked, admittedly, stunning.  Her dark blonde hair had been tediously pulled into tight curls that wrapped around the back of her head.  It all flowed down past her neckline into a silver ballgown that shimmered like a hidden oasis in the desert.

“I swear, Clint’s been in love with her since the day they met,” she continued, moving next to him to adjust the diamond necklace that hid a communication transponder on her neck.  

He shifted, allowing her room, and an opportunity to break eye contact, a surge of questions pressing against his throat, threatening to burst out.   

Bucky wanted to ask her to clarify what she’d said earlier about her commitment to the mission, but just couldn’t find the best opportunity to bring it up.If he asked her out of the blue, she might think he’d been dwelling on it all day (he had); but if he waited too long, Amelia might think he didn’t care (he did).

“Are you feeling better about this mission?” he asked, watching her straighten her sleeves and stare back at her reflection, seemingly satisfied with the result of her hard work.

“I am,” she replied with a nod.“Much better, especially since Tony stabbed me with a GPS tracker.”She held up her forearm where a small hole was healing up just under her wrist. 

“Helpful,” he agreed.“Certainly takes a bundle of stress off of my back.”

“My thoughts exactly, you might even be able to get some sleep in,” she joked, turning to face him.“About earlier…”

His breathing stopped, this would be it, the opportunity he was waiting for.

“ _What’s up?_ ” Bucky tried as hard as he could to remain calm.

“I just wanted to thank you again,” she continued sheepishly.“I know you can tell yourself the same thing over and over, but it’s nice hearing it from someone else.”

“Just stating facts,” he assured her.“You’re going to do an amazing job and have our guys home in no time.”

She grinned, reached for his hand and crossing two of his fingers over one another. 

“Fingers crossed,” she said, adding her own crossed fingers to his.

“Wouldn’t two be a double cross?” he teased.“You just jinxed yourself.”

Amelia looked absolutely mortified at the thought and immediately dropped his hand. 

“You don’t actually think…?” she looked at him with wide eyes, earning a chesty laugh from the soldier.

“I think you’re fine, I’m just joking,” he clarified, earning a frustrated shove from the newest Avenger. 

“I’m _incredibly_ superstitious,” she admitted after he offered his arm and guided her out of the armory.“My ma’s been dead for decades and I still don’t step on cracks, _just to be sure_.”

“No walking under ladders or opening umbrellas indoors, either?” he questioned, his brow quirking in interest at the small fact. 

“I was in a play about the itsy-bitsy spider when I was in Kindergarten and someone wanted me to open an umbrella on stage under a ladder and I about had a heart attack,” she laughed at the memory.“They replaced me as the spider with Tree number 4.”

“So much for your big debut,” he helped her into the elevator, lifting the extra fabric from the trail of her dress. 

“You’re telling me,” she rolled her eyes.“Doesn’t help I can’t sing a lick to save my life.I bet you have a beautiful voice.”

“I did have a few solos in the church choir, not to brag,” Bucky leaned against the wall of the elevator, taking in the brief period of calm between the two of them.It was nice, just chatting with her and not expecting much. 

He was surprised how easily the conversation flowed.

“I bet it sounds like silver,” she commented, more to herself than to him.“Do you dance too?Or are you just a one trick pony?”

“I’m a many tricked pony,” he protested.“And I’m offended you’d think otherwise.”

“Then you have to promise a space on your dance card for me tonight,” she lit up excitedly, genuinely enthused about the concept.

“Are dance cards still a thing?” he questioned dubiously.

“They can if we want them to be,” she decided firmly.“Call me old fashioned, but I think men should have to wait all night for their turn to dance with a beautiful woman.”

“That’s cruel.”

The door to the elevator opened on a spacious entrance way to the safe house.Tony, Natasha, and Clint waited in their finest apparel. 

“Took you long enough,” Clint complained. 

“I figured we had more time for you to find your boxers in Nat’s room,” Amelia shot back coolly.Bucky bit back a laugh that sounded more like a choked cough. 

“Don’t worry, he found them plenty quickly,” Natasha assured her friend, pulling her away from Bucky and guiding her outside to the waiting cars. 

Once the women had to the lead to the SUVs, Clint and Tony jumped on Bucky with smirks and coy grins.

“You two look _cozy_ ,” Stark smirked, nudging Bucky in the arm.

“I don’t have to lecture you about hurting her and stuff, do I?” Clint began, but Bucky quickly cut off both men before they could continue. 

“It’s not like that, we’re _friends_ ,” he clarified.He was finding he was clarifying this more often than usual. 

“Oh, then maybe I should have Nat do protection detail,” Tony paused, reaching in his pocket for his phone. 

Bucky scoffed, ignoring his teammates’ actions.

“Do what you want,” he countered.“We’re friends.This is a mission, and I think it’s important that we all keep clear heads.”

He was lying through his teeth. _No one_ was going to replace him on the mission.  Bucky was going to be the _only_ one ensuring that Amelia Barton got home in once piece.

* * *

Natasha was a professional at pressing Amelia’s buttons.She shot her smug grins and quirked brows the entire way to the gala, and even murmured in Amelia’s ear about corners that she and Bucky could steal away to before the mission officially started. 

“He’s a _friend_ ,” Amelia grumbled, grabbing a second glass of champagne and downing it in a single swallow.“I don’t know why you keep pressing this.”

“You’d be _good_ for each other,” Natasha replied smoothly, stirring a coke and bourbon lazily with one of the bar's tiny straws.“Broken hearts and broken souls.”

“Like you and Clint?” Amelia shot back, snagging another champagne flute from a passing waitress, and backing out of the conversation before Natasha could get another remark in.

Amelia wasn’t in the right head space to even _consider_ romantic entanglements.  Certainly she teased Barnes about it almost consistently, but they were adults and she was certain he knew better than to take her comments seriously.  If anything, maybe it'd lead to a quick lay, and another notch in Amelia's _Buck_ Belt.

“She’s just trying to make a fight more believable,” Clint appeared at Amelia’s side, plucking her glass out of her hand and taking it for himself. 

“You an expert on Natasha Romanoff now?” She teased, earning a snort from her older brother.  "You look tired, Clinton."

“Hell no, that’s just want she told me earlier,” he replied with a half hearted wave of his hand.  He finished his drink and handed Amelia the empty glass.“Is this an _actual_ open bar?Because I need to deal with Barney for a week, and lord knows I need to get a head start...”

“I’m pretty sure it’s all free,” Bucky voiced, clapping a hand on his teammates shoulder.Clint beamed, excusing himself and slipping toward the bar.Bucky turned his attention to Amelia who was still reeling over Natasha’s comments. 

_You’d be good for each other._

“I wanted to-,”

“Natasha is-,” 

They both paused, a small chuckle being exchanged between the duo before Bucky gestured for her to speak first. 

“Is Natasha making up ridiculous stories to you, too?Because I swear I’m gonna replace her vodka with water if she keeps this up.”

Bucky smirked. 

“Oh yes,” he nodded, knowing full well what the Russian spy was up to.“I’m glad I’m not the only one.I hate how easily she gets into your head.”

“Seriously!Clint said she’s doing this on purpose for the mission, but I swear that when she said we’d good for each other, she looked almost serious.”

Bucky hummed at the comment, hesitating on his next words. 

“What were you trying to say?I’m sorry, she’s just really good at her job,” Amelia rolled her eyes, her attention fully fixated on Bucky. 

“The file you gave me,” he began, making a chill shoot up Amelias spine.She was hoping that he wouldn’t have brought it up, not so soon at least.“Maybe this is bad timing...” he laughed the comment off, a nervous edge to his voice. 

Amelia glances around the room.The party was just getting started with various guests beginning to mingle and the sound rising in the room.Still, there was no sign of Ophelia or her men. 

Pulling Bucky away from the main concourse, she found one of the secluded spots Natasha had pointed out earlier.The devious minx. 

“I-,” she shook her head, trying to make sure she didn’t screw up how she phrased her words.“It isn’t fair what you’ve been through, and it makes me sick that Ophelia’s family contributed, even if it was such a small part.People shouldn’t be forced to act against their own beliefs.”

“Like with Tiboldt?” He asked softly, watching carefully for her reaction.

Amelia felt the wind knocked out of her at the question.  There was no way in hell that the former asset had figured that part out on his own-

“ _Clint_ _told_ _you_ ,” she realized, studying Bucky's face for confirmation.He glanced away, indication enough that she was right. 

“It wasn’t intentional, I was prying for information about Tiboldt and it came up,” he admitted sheepishly. 

“Then that should be answer enough,” she supplied coolly.She could feel the walls being built back up.The last thing she needed was this infuriatingly thoughtful man digging around her past.  No entanglements, romantic or just platonically intimate.

“I’m sorry,” he finally relented, meeting her eye-line once more.“I think I just-, sometimes it’s nice knowing that you aren’t alone out there, ya know?”

It was so earnest and _genuine_.She blinked at him dumbfounded.

“I really can’t tell if you’re mad or not,” he confessed after a few heartbeats of silence. 

She laughed to herself, shaking her head before speaking again. 

“I don’t think I can be mad,” she noted lightly. 

_You could be good for each other._

Perhaps Natasha was more perceptive than Amelia had given her credit for.Not that she’d ever admit it out loud. 

Amelia could feel her heartbeat strumming in her chest while she waited for Bucky to say something, anything, to break the building tension that boiled between them. 

“I’m gonna get another drink,” she finally choked out, slipping out of their tiny universe and back into the real world. 

At the bar, Natasha joined her friend, leaning against the bar top with that irritating smirk tugging at the edge of her mouth. 

“Not. A. Word,” Amelia warmed, pinching the bridge of her nose.“And why right _now_?I have to be on an undercover mission in a few hours.”

Natasha reached over the bar and plucked up a fresh bottle of a vintage merlot. 

“Then maybe you should work a little faster,” she passed the bottle to her, resting a hand on Amelia forearm.“The roof should be open.I’ll cover for you as long as I can."

Amelia squeezed Nat’s hand in thanks and slid away, easily locating Bucky in a heated conversation with Barney, and pulling him away without a word. 

“Where are-?” He stopped in the hall, and Amelia spun, wrapping an arm around the back of his neck and pulling him into a frenzied kiss that he eagerly reciprocated.

When they broke, he silently allowed Amelia to continue pulling him along until they slipped up the stairs to the rooftop. 

The night was cloudless and stars sprinkled the New York skyline that surrounded the venue. 

Bucky pressed her against the door, shrugging off his tuxedo coat and running a hand over the waist.

“Wait,” she paused, reaching for the back of Bucky’s pants.Finding her treasure, she held up a small knife victoriously, plucking the cork out of the wine and setting it aside to air.“This has to be at least a little romantic.” 

He growled impatiently, lifting her back up and biting down her neckline while her hands threaded themselves in his hair. 

She started on his shirt, her fingers nimbly working the buttons loose.As much as she wanted to rip the frustrating article off, they were still on a mission after all.There was professionalism to consider. 

He was having an equally agitating time with the ties on the back of her dress, so Amelia simply discarded it over her head. 

“How do you want to do this?” He whispered, peppering kisses to her ear.“Because I’m struggling to find a romantic option on this rooftop.”

Amelia giggled at him, the moment in itself so ridiculous, but so perfect. 

“Take your pants off, I have an idea,” she slid out of his grasp, laying the back of that damned shirt across the rooftop ground. 

Bucky seemed to figure it out pretty quickly, scooping Amelia into his arms and laying her in the thin fabric. 

“We’re going to rip it,” he voiced, his tone suggesting he wasn’t too worried. 

Amelia hummed, biting his bottom lip and pulling him closer, wrapping her legs around his torso.That was enough to break him and Bucky worked to pull her underwear off while continuing to kiss her. 

“ _Perfection_ ,” he murmured, biting at her hip and smirking when she let out a low moan.Like her body, his was littered with various scars from fights and gunshot wounds.She traced the edge of his metal arm gently with her thumb, mumbling through how beautiful he was. 

“How are you literally so perfect looking?” she grumbled, adjusting her hips below him and pressing a kiss into his chest.She didn’t hear his response, instead he pressed into her with his tip, earning a small gasp while he adjusted inside of her.She clung to his shoulders, riding each gentle thrust with heavy breaths and soft murmurs of pleasure. 

At every touch, Amelia’s skin burned like fire.It felt their hearts were in perfect sync as he took his time, making love instead of desperate fucking. 

“I’m close,” he eventually grunted, pausing a moment to stare down at her.She was certain she looked a mess, her make-up smudged and her neat updo no longer in place, but his smile was enough to make her involuntarily clench and he cursed, devouring her mouth again.“You’re gonna ruin me.”

“That’s the plan,” she whispered, holding him close while he finished with a few more thrusts. 

When he finished, he reached down and cupped her face, pressing a final kiss on her lips before he helped lift her from the ground. 

“We didn’t rip it,” she announced, holding up the dirtied white shirt.“Just… covered it in dirt.”

“The tux should cover it,” he absently replied, pulling his pants back on.He passed her the dress and panties, turning to give her some privacy while she dressed.

“We just had sex, I think you’re warranted a peek,” she teased, redressing and wrapping her arms around his waist from behind. 

“I’m trying to be a gentleman,” he insisted, turning around and kissing her forehead.“I don’t know if I could handle myself.”

“And now you’re going to have to wait,” she sighed, pulling away to lift his tuxedo coat and dust off his shirt. 

“It’ll be worthwhile,” he mused, sliding on the clothes and turning to pick up the wine off the ground.“But how about we hide away a little longer?”

Amelia was running a hand through her messy curls when she grinned back up to him. 

“That sounds absolutely wonderful.”

* * *

 


	18. Sparrow

* * *

Natasha threw her entire drink at Mia when she reappeared on the gala floor with Bucky shortly on her heels.It was startling, but it quickly occurred to Amelia what was happening.Ophelia was chatting with the mayor of New York City a few feet away from the exchange. 

With a shove, Amelia snarled a few insults under her breath, pushing past Clint while he “helplessly” tried to calm the fuming spy.The scene was enough to have caught Ophelia’s interest, if only passively as she didn’t directly approach the woman.She sent Buck Chisholm instead. 

Buck found Amelia in the back of the building, sitting on a curb and nursing a bottle of merlot straight from the bottle.

“Looks like not much has changed,” he commented, leaning his shoulder against the doorway across from her.Amelia snorted under her breath, wiping at her mouth with her wrist. 

“You’d think saving someone’s life and they would be grateful,” she murmured with a short shake of her head.“Did you know that Barnes has been pressing from day one to get me out of here?He doesn’t _trust_ me.Fuckin’ hypocrite.”

It was kind of fun lying to Chisholm.Especially when she’d get to stab him in the back later on. 

“Yikes,” he huffed.“What set Romanoff off?”

“I told her I was leaving,” Amelia threw the empty wine bottle at the alleyway’s brick lining.It crashed on the ground, leaving shimmers of broken glass on the ground between them in their mutual silence.“She got pissy, told me I was the same flaky person I was all those years ago.” 

She was slipping extra information in to try and convince Buck that she was a little drunker than she actually was.That maybe, her reaction to him earlier had been an exaggeration to sell herself to the Avengers and SHIELD again. 

And he took the bait.

Chisholm cleared his throat, causing Mia’s attention to snap up to him after staring wordlessly at the ground between them.

“You know,” he began, running a quick hand through his hair nervously, an anxious tell he’d carried over into adulthood.Whatever he was going to say, it would have _some_ truth to it.“You could crash with me for a little bit.”

“You’re the _bad guy_ ,” she eyed him, enough suspicion to keep him on edge, but a light hearted tease in the inflection that would suggest she was still willing to chat.She was playing him like a fiddle.“What would _dear_ Ophelia think?”

“She wanted to recruit you from the get go, _honestly_ ,” he shrugged.“She thinks the Avengers are an antiquated means of public control.Scare the public with superhuman and gods, and let the ignorant run things.”

The age old tale of Hydra and their lack of control.No wonder she was pushing the Accords so hard with the US Government.They could actually enforce things if the Avengers broke the law- brutally and forcefully.

“Maybe she has a point,” she mused, leaning back against the wall and sighing.“Clint has this fucking god complex, thinking he’s the greatest thing ever when he just shoots arrows next to Captain America all day… It’s sad.”

“Seriously pathetic,” Chisholm agreed, taking a few steps forward and offering a hand to help Amelia to her feet.“Why don’t you talk with Ophelia for a little bit?Lady to lady or whatever, she’s smarter than I’m sure your friends have implied.”

Amelia paused, glancing away to create the illusion that she was seriously weighing the decision. 

“What the hell,” she took his hand and stood up, brushing dirt off the back of her dress and smirking at her old friend.“All my shit’s compromised anyway, maybe it’s time for a career change.”

“That’s my girl,” Chisholm grinned back, guiding her through a staff entrance toward a secluded meeting room toward the back of the building. 

* * *

Scott Lang was finally able to roundevouz with the team after the conversation between Amelia and Chisholm.He passed along some incredibly incriminating data to Tony and quickly filled the team in on what it was that Sarkissian actually had planned. 

It didn’t involve a pretty end for Steve or Sam. 

“In 1945, Steve killed Ophelia’s grandfather, one of the heads of Hydra during a raid in search of Red Skull,” Scott explained to Natasha and Bucky after swapping his Ant Man costume for a more appropriate tuxedo.“She’s still a little bitter about it.Not to mention, her entire family has been filling her head with this anti-hero nonsense her whole life.She’s unstable, and willing to take everyone down to get what she thinks is right.”

Natasha looked to Bucky uneasily, a frown slowly falling over the spy’s expression while they listened to Lang’s brief.

When he finished, the redhead felt even more unsettled about the potential success of Amelia’s mission. 

“I think we just sent our sparrow into the viper’s nest.”

* * *

 


	19. Viper

* * *

“Now I know darling, all of this is… _intimidating_ , especially given that you’ve been fighting against Hydra for so long,” Ophelia paced the room in her stunning emerald ballgown, pausing in front of the seated Amelia to stress her points more thoroughly. 

Amelia had to admit, if she didn’t realize how truly fucked up Hydra was, she probably would have been sold on the sales pitch.Unfortunately for Ophelia and her grand scheme, a dazed Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson in the corner reminded Amelia of why she was there. 

“But when it comes to the finer points, I think we want the same thing,” she was kneeling in front of Amelia, reaching for the former spy’s hands and giving them a soft squeeze.“We want a world of peace without violence, _without men in metal suits telling us how to live our lives,_ and then blowing up entire cities.”

“That’s _why_ I joined SHIELD,” Amelia pulled Ophelia’s hands closer to her chest, her eyes wide as she tried her best to drink the kool-aid that Sarkissian was pouring.“We lost our parents so young and… I just want to fix the world, I thought fighting Fury’s battles was doing that… I just- there’s no loyalty, no commitment to do what _needs_ to be done.”

“Buck mentioned how infuriated you were when you caught him selling drugs,” Ophelia soothed, standing and pulling Amelia with her.“I promise you, that kind of evil does not exist here.We’re open and determined to do what’s right for the _world_ , not just a few fortunate few.”

Both women were measuring one another for a hint of betrayal or suspicion.Amelia knew better than to totally jump in on the cause, but for now, she agreed to help Ophelia in the little ways she could.She needed to earn the socialite’s trust, even if she wanted to get Steve and Sam out of there quickly. 

“What about Jacques and Tiboldt?” she questioned after Ophelia had pulled away and started toward the door, announcing that they should celebrate with drinks.“Buck mentioned some… concerning things they were interested in, should I show my face again…”

That caught the dark-haired woman by surprise, even if Ophelia didn’t necessarily show it on her face.

“Buck said what?” she asked, her full body language suggesting she was hanging onto all of Amelia’s words. 

“I’m sorry, he must have said something by mistake, he’s not exactly the sharpest knife in the belt, ya know?” Amelia chuckled to herself at her little joke.“I didn’t leave Jacques, at least, in the best terms… you know, the whole mob circus family thing.”

“I can assure you, I will not allow any harm to come to you,” Ophelia stated firmly, her cool demeanor shifting if for a second.“Now come, there’s a whiskey you have to try…”

Ophelia wrapped a hand around Amelia’s waist, rambling on about how pretty she looked and how she’ll make sure some necessities were dropped at her home immediately. 

While the Hydra leader chatted, Amelia caught Steve’s eye line and shot him a subtle wink, before fully engrossing herself into her role as Ophelia’s newest recruit.

* * *

“Any news from _anyone_?” Natasha hovered over Tony while he poked away at security images on his computer.The makeshift lab was pretty much empty aside from the pair, as Scott and Hope were busy training, Peter was catching up on homework, and Bruce was sharing lunch with May. 

“Radio silence from Amelia, but she’s alive and where she’s supposed to be,” he reported, not bothering to glance up from his work.“Clint and Barney have been following Sarkissian all morning and he’s really making moves with his new bill the ‘Superhuman Registration Act’ on Capitol Hill.”

Natasha scrunched her face the the title of the bill, about to ask about its contents when Tony handed her a stack of paper. 

“It’s a real fun read,” he joked dryly, finally looking up at the redhead with a long sigh.“Basically we all get to spend our lives in prison if we don’t adhere to Congress’ whims.Kids like Peter have to disclose their personal identities and everyone with a _talent_ gets tracked until they die.”

“Seems a little extreme,” she noted, flipping through the first few pages stoically.“Any idea when Ophelia is gonna make her move?”

Natasha was referring to the grand plot that Scott had revealed to the group the night before.Where Ophelia Sarkissian would get her revenge on Steve Rogers and cement the super-hero community in one fell sweep.She intended to have Steve _accidentally_ kill some school children under her control.

“I have a rough list of school districts nearby that she could strike, but I can’t do anything until Amelia gets any news in, but Ophelia has her under almost constant supervision.”

“That’s not surprising,” Nat commented, flipping through the bundle of papers. “It’s going to be slow moving for a day or so, I’m sure.”

“She’s not going to be in over her head, is she?” Scott entered the room with a tablet under his arm. He passed it to Tony and leaned on a desk across from the pair. “This Ophelia, she’s a whole different level of crazy.”

“Barton’s a little damaged, but she’s a tough kid,” Tony replied without glancing up. “Honestly, she and Natasha are two of the most incredible spies I’ve ever seen.”

“High praises from someone who doesn’t trust SHIELD,” Natasha mused, leaning over his shoulder to see the tablet. “Is this recent footage?” 

On screen, Amelia was confronting Tibolt and Jacques at the entrance of Ophelia’s mansion. Buck and Sarkissian were no where to be seen, making Natasha’s spine tingle with nerves. 

“It’s a live feed,” Scott supplied with a shrug. “Just birds and stuff.”

“Not anymore,” Tony pulled the video feed to his main monitor so the entire room could watch. 

Amelia was standing with her arms crossed, a glare fixed on her expression while the two larger men sized her up. The feed didn’t have audio, but the group could only imagine what was being exchanged between the trio.

Finally, Jacques threw a punch that Amelia caught and twisted behind his back. Tiboldt stood up and Amelia immediately back off, her body language loosening.

“He zapped her-,” Scott started to state, but Nat held up a hand to silence him, watching Amelia for confirmation of Lang’s suspicion.

The duo looked pleased with themselves, shoving past the youngest Barton and entering the mansion ahead of her. When they were out of sight, Amelia flipped her middle finger in their direction and stormed inside, slamming the door behind her.

“ _That’s_ our girl,” Tony grinned up at Natasha and Scott, moving the video feed off screen to focus on any new intel from Barnes.

* * *

 


End file.
